And so all six members of class 1-A met on the sports field in their hero costumes, trying to look less nervous than they felt about Ali-chan's possession. Deep in their hearts, they knew the black-haired little schoolgirl wouldn't deliberately do anything to hurt them, but… well, Spike's experience had spoken for itself. Who knew what kind of horrible effects they might suffer?

Then again, if they were allowing her to do it… Well, four of them were, anyway; Spike was having no part of it and, true to his word, had brought a selection of air sickness bags. He pulled them out of the pocket of his costume, a sleeveless dark green shirt with tight black shorts and a pair of scuffed black trainers, and grinned.

"We've got to keep the school clean, right?"

"Where did you even get those?"

"Old man's a pilot. One of the last remaining Quirkless airline flyers." He looked oddly proud of this dubious honour.

"Oh? That's cool. My dad's Quirkless too," said Hima-kun with a smile, adjusting his still-baggy orange and black tracksuit. Miku frowned; she highly doubted that was true, even if Hima-kun wasn't related to All Might. They had to find a way to talk to him.

"Quirkless? I don't mean to be rude, Yamamoto-san, but isn't that dangerous in his line of work? There was that big crash back when All Might debuted; and without his Quirk and the Quirks of people there…"

"You think so, Abe-san, huh? You're the Quirkless expert, are ya? What even is your Quirk?"

"Eh? You didn't see me use it in our rescue exercise? And I might ask you the same thing, Yamamoto-san."

"All right, guys, that's enough." Miku clapped her paws together; Abe-san and Spike looked up guiltily. "This is for Ali-chan's benefit, not for you to start arguing. Unless she makes you, of course. Ali-chan?"

The small girl adjusted her costume nervously. She was kitted out in a pastel pink and yellow version of a Wild Wild Pussycats outfit, complete with massive paws, and looked remarkably similar to her idol Ragdoll – only somehow even cuter.

"No, I'm just going to do some simple tests today. Next time – if there is a next time – I'll do more stuff like that, perhaps even trying to possess more than one person at once."

"Right. So what's the plan?"

Ali-chan frowned. "Let's see…" She pulled out a pack of headache medication and a water bottle from her bag. "Abe-san, Nakahara twins, I'll start with you; Hima-kun, if all goes well we can move on to you. Okay?"

"Okay, you're the boss…"

Miku sat in one of the empty buildings in the middle of one of UA's cityscapes and fiddled with her earpiece. She hadn't really noticed before, but it was a rather awkward fit for her bunny-shaped ears; she wondered if the support students could fix it for her.

"All right, Ali-chan, all clear."

"Good. Hayate-kun?"

"All clear."

"Abe-san?"

"Perfectly so. Ready on your command."

"All right. I'll start with the first person I can find. For the next minute or so, I would like all three of you to try not to say anything, and I will try to first find someone and then force them to speak."

Miku nodded. She was ready and waiting, just within Ali-chan's one-mile range but not somewhere easily guessable. It would take the girl perhaps a few seconds to search the whole area for the three students in hiding, and perhaps another second for her to take control of the person's body. They would have time to prepare their mental defences, if there were any that could withstand her. The other two, somewhere in the other practice areas within Ali-chan's range, were likely preparing themselves as best they could as she was.

"Hey Ali-chan, maybe you should clench their buttholes just in case!" Spike's cackling voice echoed over the earpiece. "Nakahara-san here already looks like he's shitting himself."

"You're one to talk, Spew-kun." Hayate sounded annoyed. "Why'd you come along if you didn't want to take part, huh?"

"I'm the sick bag man, of course. Everyone got theirs, right?"

Miku sighed and rolled her eyes. "Come on, Spike, this is for the festival. Let's be serious."

"Just joking around, prez."

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't. Ali-chan, please continue."

"All right. If you could all prepare yourselves."

Miku closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to calm her quickly beating heart. All she had to do was not say anything. She clamped her mouth shut as tight as she could, and wondered whether she should hold her breath. Just say nothing…

"Your minute starts in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Now."

She held her breath. A few seconds passed. Nothing happened. Then, with a gasp –

"My name is Nakahara Miku. Mmmm—my Quirk is 'R-r-'" she gritted her teeth, trying desperately to stop herself – "'Rabbit', a mmm-mutation Quirk that g-gnh… that gives me the head, abilitiessss… and many of the d-d-distinguishing features of a r-r-rabbit. Aaah… Twenty s-s-secondsss… I have a fff-fff-fluffy tail… gnh… give me lettuce and carrotssss…ten… fffive… one!"

Her mouth snapped shut, and almost immediately blood started to pour from her nose. Her ears rang. She felt light-headed, but was gratified to notice that she was not showing any worse side effects. Perhaps, if you knew what was coming, it wasn't so bad.

"Are – are you all right, Miku-chan? Oh, my head… You did quite well to resist me so stubbornly."

"I'm fine, a little light headed. What on earth was that nonsense you made me say?"

"WHAT? No fair!" Spike was yelling into his earpiece, creating a whine of feedback that increased the ringing in Miku's ears. "I get possessed for one minute and throw up, and you just get a little woozy? That's bullshit!"

"I'm checking up on you Miku-chan, I'll know if it's worse… You liar! You have a nosebleed and your ears are ringing! You need medical attention!"

"I feel fine, I swear. I'm fine to continue the exercise. Besides, if I was worse I wouldn't be talking, would I?"

"She has a point. After all, one way or the other we have to practice, no matter what."

"Well, she's your sister, I suppose. If you're saying it…"

"Hey! Why do you believe him and not me?"

"Come on, let's continue the exercise." Abe-san was sounding remarkably confident now. "We can argue this point more later."

"Yeah, Abe-san is right. We should move on." Miku adjusted her earpiece once again. "Ali-chan, what's the next experiment?"

"Er… This time I'd like to stop someone from speaking. I can't expect you all to speak nonstop for a minute, so which one of you would like to try it?"

"I'll take this," said Hayate. "You never know, the decreased side effects might be genetic or something. That would be ideal…"

"All right. Spike, you're with him, right? Is he ready?"

"As ready as he'll ever be. Here, I'll even hold his ears away from his face."

"No!" Ali-chan yelped suddenly. "Don't touch him, it distracts me!" She took a breath and seemed to calm down. "Hayate-kun, as I mentioned, I would like you to try and talk as much as you can for one minute. Anything you like. I'll try to stop you saying anything."

"Er, what kind of thing?"

"I don't care, recite the English alphabet. Sing Happy Birthday or the national anthem. List all of your favourite heroes and their Quirks. Just something."

"All right, I'll do my best…"

"Okay, in that case, prepare yourself." She waited. "Your minute starts in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Now."

"Earth. Water. Wind. Fire. All lived in - mmmmgh!" He stopped suddenly. Miku heard a few muffled grunts, then a gasp. "In harmo—nnnnnngh…" A few, desperate seconds, then another gasp. "Until the fire nation-nnn…" Thirty seconds remaining. Miku could almost feel the struggle going on as Hayate tried everything to regain control of his body. "Gah! The only person hhhhhh…." Ten seconds. "C-could bring the ffff-mmm…." Two, one.

There was a loud thump.

"Oh, shit!"

"Spike? Is everything okay down there? Hayate-kun, what's going on?"

"It's not good, vice prez…"

Miku's heart sank. "How bad is it?"

Spike's voice shook, despite the cheery way he was trying to talk. "Let me put it this way, Nakahara-chan… Have you ever seen a six-foot-tall hare fainting?"

She sighed. "He's six-two, and no, I don't think I ever have."