Monitoring Room - 07:20 a.m.

It had been about ten minutes since the first fight started, and since then, everyone began to had mixed feelings watching from behind the scenes.

The class gathered inside the monitoring room, mutters running about in the air while being partly muffled by the loud explosions blaring from the surround sound speakers placed in every corner of the room.

The children hadn't taken their eyes off of the action in front of them. Almost as if watching a tragedy happening before them, the class had their words lodged inside their throat in disbelief.

"That's cruel." Mori suddenly said in worry. She felt herself having the need to remark the horror in front of her to her friends.

The others watched, almost in a pitiable state. They started to nod along with her.

"Thank god, I'm not against him." Miyu said with a disbelieved stare.

The lights blared inside the monitoring room as the simulated fight between the villains and the heroes that happened to be in heat was happening all in front of her, and she wasn't the only one who was watching closely. Many of her other classmates watched with different reactions from one another.

On the giant screen, right at the middle of the many more just like it, placed between them in neat rows and columns, was showing the action of the fight between one man against three, causing awe and caution in those who watched it.

The two teachers were also watching closely from outside the crowd of students, their stiff hands ready to touch the little mic in front of them whenever something gets out of hand, and they were in the brink of weariness. Mimicking the reaction of their students, both Mr. Adachi and All Might cannot comprehend the sheer intensity of the battle that was happening in front of them.

To the Number 1 Pro Hero, watching Tarasu in action was even more spine chilling than that of the last class that he had taught. These children were professional when it came to acting in a precarious situation. He then remembered what kind of mold that these children came from, and it took him a while to remember that these weren't the same people who find simulated battles as a 'friendly activity'.

He didn't want to patronize himself to say that it never was, but seeing Tarasu in action, while being in accordance to the strategy his team had pulled earlier on, made All Might thought twice about the need of him in teaching them anything.

But nevertheless, he needed to remind himself of the real caretaker that should've been responsible in today's events. All Might needed to cast aside the children and avert his attention to the temporary teacher that had a face paler than a snowy field on a winter storm.

In his buff form, All Might adopted a look of concern to his colleague.

"Are you okay, Mr. Adachi?" He asked him, and Adachi merely shot his head to the bigger man in surprise.

The lion haired man meekly stuttered, his arms folding together in a form of discomfort. There was a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. But nevertheless, All Might didn't expect anything less from the man who had been fighting in the battlefield years before All Might had made his debut as the number one Pro Hero.

Yet, the two weren't that far apart in terms of seniority. Which would explain their experience in two different things: heroism and combat.

Even back then, All Might knew the difference between him and Adachi.

The second he had heard about the HRI Program, there was a sudden call for answerability to the ones involved. Yet, knowing how it would be for a hero in the face of would be villains, he felt that it might be out of his boundaries.

But when Adachi came along, he knew exactly what the class needed. The man had shown so much enthusiasm in being a teacher, whereas All Might… he was only thinking about his successor. He couldn't put his slight shame into words when Adachi had shown to be more than capable to understand these children better than he did.

Adachi was the only one who could do it. All Might respected him for what he aimed to be; the person who could give these children the future that they deserved. The Number One Pro Hero somehow found something from the war-torn soldier that he can learn, and perhaps an equal footing as well.

But something changed, for the worse.

The Hisaki Adachi that was once full of hope and passion, had disappeared in the blink of an eye. Something had definitely happened to him, and All Might's suspicion was proven when he went and spoke with Nedzu, who told him that Adachi was going to go back to being a law enforcer, quitting his teacher occupation for good.

All Might at first felt like it wasn't his place to meddle in. Not when he knew that Adachi volunteered to be a temporary teacher in the first place.

But Adachi was different than the others, even when he wasn't a graduate from a field of study. Which only made him even more respectable among others.

His love for children, his caring attitude, it was what made All Might's impression of him indubitably an overall good person. The Pro Hero might even say that he was way better than he was.

The two had spoken, leaving All Might with the bittersweet feeling of envy and pity. It was the night before the end of spring, marking the week that would march on as the day of the start of this year's first semester. The two adults sat together inside a restaurant, being pulled around by their fellow coworkers to try out and have some fun every once in a while, and Adachi had unknowingly proved himself to be a much better company to have in an outing.

All Might remembered the enthusiasm that he had talking about the future plans he had for the kids, never had All Might known such dedicated person… not until a familiar face reminded him of someone who used to be the same as Adachi.

… Used to be.

All Might, that night, had purposely let Adachi know that he trusts him enough to let him know of his alter ego: Yagi Toshinori. And surprisingly, as All Might had shared his weakest form to someone who he had only met in a span of weeks (yet, he knows a particular boy who had accidentally seen his alter ago, minutes after their first encounter), Adachi merely laughed it off.

He did say he was surprised, though. All Might was taken aback by his sudden composed reaction, and he could've sworn the rest of his coworkers who knew about his disability was also giving an apparent bewilderment when Adachi looked no more than having a brief surprise.

That night, as the hours began to pass and the people of the night began to disperse, Adachi had shared to All Might his own weakness. He was not in a state affected by alcohol, considering that he did not drank any, but he had let out his heart to Yagi Toshinori without a hint of doubt.

"I am scared, Mr. Toshinori…"

All Might remembered him say.

"I might be a teacher now, but what if I fail to become what they had expected of me the most?"

All Might remembered telling him that everyone needed to learn from their first mistakes, and there was nothing wrong with making a lot of them.

"But you see, Mr. Toshinori… there's this kid in the program… who I've known for almost ten years now... I have left him once and came back months after without telling him anything. I was too confident, I thought that that the other Suppressors might get along with him just as well as I did, I trusted them to. But… I came back only to find the news of him… sickened and dying… Then, I ran. I was too scared to go back and look at my past mistakes, but I didn't give up on him. He might hate me, he might want to try to kill for leaving him… heh… even though I already did… but I was still searching around, trying to find anything that can save him from being the dangerous object that he was going to be… And then, I found it; I couldn't believe I landed myself on the Ministry of Heroics' door, with the plans for the HRI Program right in my hands… I did what I had to at the moment, because I couldn't afford him hurting himself anymore… Nedzu, along with the rest of the teachers, had signed the official test run. I picked out the children single handedly and gave him friends. Thinking that I might just get through him this time…"

All Might, or, at that moment, Yagi Toshinori, saw him sigh into the chilly night. Looking forlorn and hopeless.

"But he was never going to let me through. I needed this experiment to work or else… I wouldn't have anything to prove to him anymore…"

The two shared quite the professional bond since then. And All Might learned something truly meaningful that night; whether it was successor and teacher, inmate and guard, everyone has some kind of bond that keeps them together, even if they were strangers in the first place.

He truly needed the pep talk that they had before bidding each other goodbye, that night. Of course, it was because Yagi was reminded of his old mentor, whom he had deeply respected for just because, out of every Quirked in the world, it was one Quirkless boy whom she had chosen to be her successor.

The circumstances vary, but the blood of the covenant is still thicker than the water of the womb.

Snapping back to reality, ending his silent musings and reminiscing of the past, he looked sideways towards the Mr. Adachi in the present.

He was different from back then, and it gave All Might enough reason to fix things back in place. For he wanted his own successor to learn in his place. And Adachi wasn't going to back down from his position just yet, for All Might was the Symbol of Peace, and what better way was there than to teach it from people to people?

If Adachi wouldn't get his advices through to his head, then All Might needed to smash it directly into his brain.

"Are you sure that this is alright?" Adachi said with a hint of impatience in his tone, his fingers tightening its grasp on the lining of his suit in stress. "Hasn't this gone far enough?"

"This is too early, Mr. Adachi." All Might reassuringly said, keeping his beefy hands in a close position with the mic that would've signaled if a penalty was performed. "Please be calm, everything is under control. And, if you must, learn from what they are doing."

If All Might had to be frank, he needed to say that he was a tad bit worried. When Tarasu first came to the spotlight and began to cut every rope that kept his sanity together, All Might was geniunely terrified.

Adachi's pupils wandered left and right, trying to follow the action in front of him. "I understand the simulations necessary for teaching the importance of strategy and teamwork, but…" He then turned to All Might with a raised eyebrow, "… what point is there to keep watch and let both teams rip each other's throats out?'

"It is a simulation, after all. I am making sure that nothing gets out of the line." All Might told him, his absurdly shadowed face showing no signs of apprehensiveness. "And besides, they are acting all according to their strategies, no?"

It was true, Adachi had watched the bloodthirsty Tarasu to have conducted a fairly logical plan, along with his teammates. He was impressed. But when he saw Jun Hamada being slammed into the ground with just one arm, something inside him snapped.

He understood what he needed to do, and that was nothing. Not that he couldn't do anything at all, but it was better to all of them that he shouldn't be doing anything at all.

"We still have time, Mr. Adachi." All Might assured him, patting the back of Mr. Adachi's back. "Up until now, we have yet to see more of their potentials. This is an important part of teaching them what it meant to lend your power to someone, rather than letting everyone know that you can do it yourself!"

"That's what I'm worried about…" Adachi said under his breath. "You do not understand him, and what he's willing to do just to prove his point…"

The Pro Hero immediately knew who Adachi was referring to, and he turned his attention back to the screen before watching the figure of the smaller male out of the visible three in the battlegrounds.

All Might said nothing back to Adachi, he averted his attention back to the other side of the screen, watching both Kaori Tsukinose and Seiji Orimura slowly and slowly getting more and more cornered by Tarasu Kobayashi.

It was not a pretty sight. Not one bit. All Might needed to remind himself that perhaps something even more dangerous might happen between these children if not supervised thoroughly. Even so, he would be lying if he didn't say that he wasn't prepared for any possible outcomes from the last Battle Trial that he conducted with the Hero Course of Class 1-A.

Honestly, All Might should've said that he was prepared for any of Jun's possible outbursts just because of the fact that there was someone very similar to him in the Hero Course.

"All Might, can I ask you something?" Adachi spoke up, earning All Might's attention. "Tell me in all honesty, what do you think of delinquents?"

"Like the kids here?"

"No, not quite, I meant like the villainous kind." His voice seemed dark. "Robbers, murderers, and money launderers."

All Might was taken aback, it was his turn to look conflicted. "There is no place for those who shed blood without a reason."

"And if there was a reason?"

"… Justifiable or not, murder is still murder. It's a line you cross and can't go back to. But that does not mean something must be entirely pure for it to be good. A road that leads to inhumanity that's paved with good intentions is still going to go somewhere. It's your decision, and it's honestly not my place to judge, even at prepubescent children. But I am a Hero, and it is my job to punish those who kill without a sane goal." All Might told him. "Wouldn't you say the same? It shouldn't have anything to do with Hamada, would it?"

Adachi scoffed. "You say that as if we had a choice to choose between kill or be killed."

All Might paled, realizing what he meant.

"Did Jun also had to make the same decision?" He wanted to understand, he really did, but to finally learn that one person amongst them had once dirtied their hands with a stranger's blood was too much to digest.

"There was a time, you know," Adachi responded at once, "when I talked to him about his dreams."

All Might lifted his chin in interest. "Oh?"

"I have never seen anyone with such passion for being strong, as if he was afraid of being weak. If I hadn't met him, he would've been a villain with no means of turning back. I honestly couldn't the say the same as of now." Adachi told him, before he hung his head. "Everyone asked if I was mad when I suggested him as a student. But in reality, Jun was quite different from any regular villain son. He was convinced to be a sole survivor in the world. A world where no one will always hate him for his power."

All Might understood now, and he needed to remind himself of what the HRI was supposed to represent. "Ah, I see… That would explain his chronic fear of death, then…"

He was then suddenly reminded of what Kaori Tsukinose had shouted at Jun, and it almost made him sick.

"But I tried, I just couldn't understand." Adachi harrumphed. "Even after all these years, he was still the same. Which is why I tried to hard to change his mindset."

All Might went silent. "And whose fault is that?"

Adachi shot him a glance. "You think this is my fault? I'm sorry I couldn't have just left him in the prison there to rot! I was only thinking for his best."

The Pro Hero couldn't believe the sudden change in attitude, almost as if he wasn't even realizing the bigger part of this: himself.

All Might averted his gaze to the other screen, finally seeing the figure of Jun who had just fell limp into the floor to have finally gotten back up. Then, Adachi's eyes widened in surprise, he wanted to shout on top of his lungs to have Jun notice him from the other part of the school.

He could see Jun through the static that shook the screen and what it was showing. He gritted his teeth, feeling himself suddenly getting more and more anticipated. All Might was the same, he was surprised to see the shorter male to be able to stand again.

… until it all crumbled down to nothing.

His heart sank back down to the abyss that was his chest, his excitement reduced to nothing, and as he watched Jun standing there, facing Tarasu once more with an iron fist, he was suddenly reminded of one crucial flaw.

His heart raced, before turning to All Might once more. "I'm going out."

All Might and Adachi stared at each other, with the former being taken aback by the intensity in Adachi's tone.

"Calm yourself, Adachi!" All Might reassured him, the thought of one particular explosive boy crossed his mind. "Please stay and watch! This is a great opportunity for him to learn, Mr. Adachi."

"No." Adachi said with a stern voice, but his composure was almost close to breaking. "No, I don't want to see this! He's just going to hate me again!"

Silence overwhelmed them, and it was bad enough that the other children were still in the same room with them. But All Might had already thought of the whole activity through, from both the fight to Adachi's reaction.

Back with Class 1-A, perhaps he had learned something from a certain green haired student. It was not about winning, it's about learning how to win. Everyone back then had already showed a lot of potential in teamwork-based activities, even if it meant leaving one of them hurt or left behind. It was a start, but it showed him what it meant when push comes to shove.

Everyone will try to win, even in the slightest chance that they had in the first place. This is the case for Jun Hamada; the boy who had been the centerpiece of the what was wrong with the class.

Winning should be easy for him if it wasn't for his disability, but the world cannot take such results. All Might could not take such results. Winning or losing, he needed to make sure that Adachi watched the battle from start to finish.

If it will take that much to convince him, then it was all All Might needed.

"Not yet, Mr. Adachi!" His inner Yagi Toshinori pleaded. "Look at Jun Hamada, look at how he's still trying to give it all even when he was conflicted by your expectations against him!"

The two adults stared at each other, tension rising between them. Until a certain voice called out to them from one of the children.

"Look, Mr. Adachi." It was Yato Shimura's voice. His tone seemed urging. "Something's wrong with Jun."

Adachi snapped his head at the screen, looking for the right monitor that showed the right video feed of Jun Hamada anywhere. His eyes came across the sight of a little boy kneeling on the ground, clutching at his heart in pain. Adachi couldn't see his face clearly, but Jun was clearly in pain.

A single word breathed out of the mouth of Mr. Adachi, "No…"

All Might was looking far more distraught, "Get up, young Hamada! Show Mr. Adachi what you can do!"

Both the children and the teachers continued watching the battle unveil, the only sound that busied the room was the one that came from the surround sound that boomed the area with voices of angry shouting and screaming.

It was horrid to listen to, even when they could see the pain and suffering happening right in front of them.

This was not a teamwork-based exercise anymore, this was killed or be killed.

But neither All Might nor Adachi had lost their hopes, for deep inside their hearts they knew they were rooting for the heroes to win.

Battle Simulation Field - 07:30 a.m.

Dust crept into Jun Hamada's snot filled nose. His body aching to be put into rest as he found himself unable to pick himself up from the floor that he laid on. The brunette brushed lightly at the sweat drenched face that filled his eyes through the waterfall running down his bruised forehead.

He could feel it all over his body: bruises, scars, and aches that tore his body apart. He tried picking himself up again, one last attempt to finish it all. He gritted his teeth as the muscles on his forearm shivered and tremored under his own limp weight. Like pushing himself through a hundred pushups at once.

But that wasn't the worst part of it. Deep within his chest he can feel his heart slowly tightening, the veins in his throat began to pulse in a soft yet last-minute velocity. He was slowly getting deoxygenized.

"Shit…" Jun cursed to himself, running his sweaty hands against his neck, feeling himself getting harder and harder to breathe. "Not now! Not now! NOT NOW!"

Lone footsteps made him flinch on where he stood.

The boy watched as the dusty horizon around him began to disperse, and the light rays that lit up the room struck at the monstrosity in front of him.

"Well, then, Hamada. Ready for round two?" It taunted at him.

Just as the light rays from above highlighted the form in front of him, his eyes were suddenly blinded by a sudden flash of white that struck across his face. The deformed figure of Tarasu Kobayashi filled his vision. Then, he realized that, after several minutes of relentless fighting, he had not even lay one scratch on the diamond-cladded knight.

Precisely a knight, for at the top of his curled-up hand protruded a rather jagged looking crystal, elongated to the point of it being similar to a sword.

It struck fear in the heart of Jun Hamada, for he could no longer achieve an upper hand as far as he could see.

The brunette felt cornered… afraid… desperate.

And he was watching him feel all these conflicted emotions!

While gritting his teeth, Jun looked straight at Tarasu in the eye. "Why are you still talking? I'm not done yet." He taunted, trying to confide himself in a brief, less-suspenseful situation.

But Tarasu seemed more than happy to throw back an insult straight at him.

"Wow, you are a tough nut to crack!" He laughed, opening up his crystalized arms to show how his chest rose at the way he boasted. "Can't you understand where you stand?! I can't believe you're this stupid!"

Jun made a scowling look, a deadly glare shot at Tarasu's direction from the single eye that was visible from the gaps of the thick bangs of his brunette hair. He didn't like being called stupid. Bit even so, he didn't have the energy to spit back at him. His poison's all gone but the sheer force he had left in his body could still perhaps give him an advantage.

When he set Kaori off to help Seiji Orimura in finding their target rocket, he realized the length he needed to go for him to win. He couldn't run, not when this homicidal maniac could still probably chase him down. And furthermore, there were still two opponents for his team to deal with.

But he didn't care, not when he knew he could win without anybody helping him. It was his only goal an he felt like it was fair to give his 'teammates' a head start.

He just needed to keep Tarasu talking until he finds a way out, destroy the building, and bury his opponent under it. It shouldn't be a problem for him considering his Quirk was to make possibly anything solid to tumble down into dust and debris.

"You don't have a way out! And it was all thanks to me!" Tarasu kept scoffing, leering at Jun's way. "Your friends wouldn't be able to get to the rocket in time, idiot! And since you're stuck in here with me, I can say that your chances of winning are… about zero!"

Jun wanted to sigh, he really did. He was too tired to lash out and scream every curse word he knew at Tarasu for him to even make the first move of punching him square in the face first. The crystallizer had been going on about how he had the upper hand ever since they had been going at it for about one minute, and it made Jun sick.

How can anyone run their mouth in the middle of the battle like that? It actually reminded him of Adachi, who had talked to him in a soothing voice as he pinned him down onto the ground.

It actually made Jun feel a lot worse by reminiscing back. If only Adachi was actually here, Jun would've gone for him instead.

But for now, he'd like to punch Adachi in the gut by winning… all by himself.

"Do you even realize what's going on?!" Tarasu rambled on again. "I had so much faith in you! But then again, you were the one who fell first! I gotta hand it to you, though, for lasting this long. Too bad there's nothing else you can do—"

"Nothing?" Jun suddenly breathed out, grinning a fanged smile. "I can still rip out your motherfucking spine and beat the HELL out of the two of your lackeys!"

Jun had thrown it all away; his sanity, his restrains… he just needed to get to the rocket! It was easier said than done, Jun knew that. But he had no choice, he needed to win! He couldn't bring himself to look at the face of Adachi if he didn't.

After all this time… Adachi will now finally see how he wouldn't ever need him again!

"So aggressive…" Tarasu purred, casting a devilish smirk as he bowed down his head. "You sure you want to keep going, Hamada? I can still find it in my heart to spare you, you know?"

Jun didn't care, his savage nature was ready to be spilled out. With a plan already set out, he reached to the back of his belt. In his hand he then held a metallic mask, shaped only to fit the front of his face with build-in with a circular cone-shaped muzzle.

As he put it on, his eyes were then covered with goggles of crimson, designed to give him more intimidation. As the mask was fitted in place, he took a deep breath in.

"Keep talking and you'll find your FACE BLOWN IN!" In a sudden adrenaline rush, he sped forward.

With the last ounce of his strength, coursing through his stinging, trembling arms, Jun moved forward. He cocked back his continuously vibrating arm, ignoring the pain that rose from his sore muscles.

Tarasu had found himself something interesting at last; the will to fight and survive. He ran ahead, his diamond spike that protruded out of his right arm pulled back for an incoming fatal slash. He wouldn't kill Jun, not when Suki Takara's plan was in motion.

He knew the risk of failing, which was why he was sucking up to a girl his age for once.

But that didn't matter, not when he was close to winning.

Jun had exactly the same thoughts, but the ultimate resolve that wrapped around his mind was not because of something as trivial as 'teamwork'. When he thought of punching, he would only think of one thing: Adachi.

Their running footsteps filled the empty halls as dust under their feet began to scatter. Hell was about to be unleashed, again.

"Witness me, Adachi…"

Jun and Tarasu was almost face to face, with the diamond sword mere inches away from stabbing at Jun's shoulder. Little did Tarasu knew… Jun had already come prepared. Even when he was looking at the devil, cladded in crystal, straight in his maniacal eye.

"WITNESS ME, GODDAMMIT!"

And then, Jun's fist went down. His body missed the tip of the sword in just a mere second, right before his vibrating fist collided with the floor.

KER-BOOOOOOOM!

The floor exploded into a million tiny debris, scattering all over the place as the ground shook at the contact similar to that of a meteor. The surrounding pillars began to tilt, cracking and breaking in the process as the ground that caved in in the center of them began to pull them in.

The two teenage males were then falling into the darkness below, the ground had already swallowed them up.

Tarasu's bewildered expression was exactly what Jun wanted to see as he fell. Darkness engulfed him as the building began to start crumbling down from the middle down.

.

Two people stopped at their tracks, both looking back towards the sudden tremor that shook below them.

Kaori Tsukinose suddenly felt a spine chilling sensation as she took upon a pose of alertness; looking around the surrounding with a rather concerned expression. She looked towards her companion, Seiji Orimura, to search for some sort of reassurance. His face conveyed the feeling of great fear under the hanging lights above them.

But when the concrete under them began to crack and tremble, she found none.

The two could feel themselves losing more and more balance as the hallway around them started to crumbled and break down. Dust and debris began to stack up into a heap, and, from the other end of the hallway in which they were standing on, lights began to flicker.

And just before they knew it, darkness had already engulfed the far side of the hallway behind them. Until they realized that the darkness was gaining, and it was gaining fast.

"The roof's closing down on us!" Seiji shouted out in sudden horror. "Let's get out of here before—"

He stopped, just as his hand subconsciously tried to pull Kaori away from where they stood. He saw her standing there awestruck, frozen rigid into the floor.

He had no time to ask her what was wrong. "KAORI!"

She was then brought back to life, her eyes meeting up with his wide ones. She began to sputter, quickly regaining her composure. "R-Right!"

The two began to sped away from the incoming darkness, the storm of concrete dusts began to reach them first. The hallway kept tremoring violently, unknown to them why. But they had a pretty good idea of what was wrong.

With their hearts lodged in their throats, the two began to start avoiding the debris that was coming down from the nearly fallen apart walls around them.

They were not going to survive long in this mess.

Kaori tried her best to remember the outline of the building around them, calculating every possible way out that she could muster with her mental strength. Just as she was near giving up in the moment she felt the oncoming wind of dust scratch at her neck, she saw light in front of them, and the hallway began to expand.

Much to their sudden deathly panic, the floors below them started to crack with a loud crunching noise. They were not going to make it.

With their lungs almost close to giving up, burning the insides of their chests as they ran for their lives, the rumbling sound of the roof falling down on them were only a few feet away. The light seemed so close, yet so unreachable.

But Kaori still had a trick up her sleeve, one that even she knew that it might not work.

With an iron will, she took out one of her throwing knives. She lifts the tip of her blade just at the level of her eye, she couldn't miss this shot.

Giving everything her muscles had in her arm, the knife flew ahead of both Seiji and her with a quick throw.

She could feel the floor under her sinking down. Instinctively, she pounced her companion with both her arms wrapping around his body before the both of them disappear in a flash of light, the hallway disappearing in a dusty, dark mess.

Just as they were once running with all their might, the two heroes could feel themselves hitting the air once more, but neither their feet were touching the ground.

With a loud thud, they landed on the ground before skidding out of the building. Behind them, straight from the darkness inside the backdoor exit, a gust of dusty wind exploded out of the hallway. The exit collapsed under its own weight, much like the foundation around it.

As the two teenagers began picking themselves up, they saw the aftermath that almost took their lives. The two made quite the bewildered faces as the building in front of them began to fall apart, it was a miracle how it all didn't fall down at once.

The two still had themselves trying to wrap their heads around the situation, but they had a pretty good idea what was happening.

"Jun…" Seiji unknowingly breathed out, not realizing what he was doing until Kaori suddenly shot up.

She pressed her finger into her ear, hurriedly trying to get a good signal. "Jun! Jun! Are you hurt?! Hello?... Stupid transmitter… come on!"

Seiji had also trying to lift himself up, brushing himself off of any dust that got caught in his clothes. He wanted to interject into whatever Kaori was having a problem with, for as far he knew their earpiece frequency wasn't going to be caught by anything anywhere, and also because he couldn't find it in his courage to try and intrude her while she was running back and forth in a troubled state.

But time's running out, he needed to keep them both in the path towards their goal. If they didn't, then Jun's effort would be for nothing. Even so, Seiji himself had no intention of backing down just yet.

"I don't… mean to interrupt but…" Seiji started, walking hastily towards her, "… we still have a rocket to secure. If we don't get to that quick, the time will run out!"

Kaori looked at him with uncertain eyes. "But he wouldn't last long if we just leave him there! All of this would be in vain!"

"You say that like he's going to die!" Seiji said in incredulity, grabbing her shoulder with a tight yet reassuring grip. "He's not! Okay? He's much stronger than all of us! He's going to be fine!"

The two stared at each other in a standstill, before Kaori began to take a deep breath to calm herself down. "Y-you're right. We can still get to the rocket if we hurry."

"Good." Seiji told her with a nod. "Come on, we shouldn't waste—"

Just before he could finish his sentence, the abandoned mall behind them let out a loud explosive BOOM! The two of them just stared at the building with a massive jolt in their chests.

"We need to get out of here…" Seiji implied as he felt the ground starting to shake, taking Kaori's wrist in his grasp.

The girl looked at him with eyes full of resolve, she seemed to have regained her purpose. Seiji could understand her conflicted feelings very clearly, he too realized what it meant to leave Jun to himself, fighting with all of his might with a disability that would kill him.

The two immediately made their way into a different area outside of the abandoned mall, their surroundings were now even larger than before with metallic beams upon metallic beams were placed into an unfinished foundation of what seemed to be the extension of the mall. The sun glared above them, giving them no time to refresh themselves.

Kaori had heeded to Seiji, saying that she would try to give them a different route, implying that she wanted to ambush the villain team.

She didn't say where, though. And Seiji couldn't believe he had found himself leaping over concrete buildings to concrete buildings, trying to catch up with Kaori's unbelievable speed and stamina.

He wasn't sure if the world around them was the same anymore, everything seemed so… post-apocalyptic. The buildings around them, and the ones they could see from afar, were grey and dull with hints of falling apart or wasn't even being finished building at all. Everything seemed distorted and rather cold, despite the fact that it was the beginning of summer.

His companion and him found themselves standing upon a lone building, almost looking out of place with the giant mall right at the center of the artificial city, with metallic pipes surrounding them on the ground level from every side.

"Odd… seemed like something is awfully wrong with the surroundings…" Kaori deduced, looking around her. "I can't spot Takara nor Takehiro anywhere. Have they already left the area? Then why go through so much to keep Jun busy? Had they already know we were coming?"

They began to lose sight of the old world, as the new one seemed so alien.

Maybe it was because they had a certain goal in mind, that nothing else mattered. Seiji liked to think that it was for that reason, that he kept going, pushing himself to win even if it was a friendly activity.

He needed something to prove himself with, something that gives him the reason to keep going as a hero.

As he pressed on into the concrete wasteland, he heard static in his ear. "W-what?"

Kaori seemed to have heard it as well. "No way… JUN?! JUN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

A shout, an angry one at that. And sounds of struggling, painfully.

"BZZZT… I… I… I'M GOING TO—BZZZT—WIN! GRAAAAAAAH!"

The two heroes exchanged troubled glances. The sound of static and screaming still ringing in their ears.

.

"Oi! Oi! Oi!" Tarasu said in panic, the diamonds protruding from his body beginning to dissolve. "Don't fight it you idiot, are you crazy?!"

Below him was Jun, layers upon layers of crystal pining him down to the giant pile of debris that the two fighters were on. Tarasu pushed Jun down with every inch of his leftover strength, enough to keep the tremor-boy busy until the time runs out and his team wins.

Yeah, that was the plan, alright. Keep Jun busy, leave the rest to Suki Takara, should he fail to take down the three of them. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.

But Jun was making it harder than it sounded.

Tarasu had been struggling against him for what felt like an eternity now. Jun was lucky he wasn't being serious and killing him in the process, but the shorter boy was seriously testing his patience.

By now, a lot of sane people would've given up, implying that they had been thrown around, punched, kicked, and even having his clothes ripped open by diamond spikes. But Jun had not showing any signs of backing down at all, as he kept a firm grip against the arm that held him down.

Tarasu could also feel the debris below him beginning to jump along with him, almost as if an earthquake was pulsing powerfully through the mall. Centering from where Jun was.

"Kuh… how irritating…" He said with a light click of his tongue. "Good grief, you're pathetic!"

Hearing this, Jun started to go rampant. He was not pathetic! He kicked the rocks under him, squirming under the growing mass of crystals on his chest while being pressed down, he kept sending in powerful pulses from the depths of his chest to break everything around him in order to break free.

Yet, the pain was unbearable. His head was stinging from the tremor, and his muscles could almost not take anymore of the shockwaves that his own body created. But most importantly, he could not breathe, thanks to Tarasu's crystal weight and his own weak lungs.

"Not yet…! Not yet…!" Jun growled out loudly from his sore throat, hidden under his mask, still trying to push away Tarasu's overgrown hand with all his might. "NOT FUCKING YET!"

"Stop it! Oi, stop it!" Tarasu tried to reprimand, feeling his layers of crystal slowly breaking away from all the shockwaves that Jun kept pumping into his surroundings. "You're already dead! You can't possibly think of a way out of this, you suicidal bastard! Give up! You're weak! You're weak! You're not helping anyone in this situation!"

But Jun had not heard anything, from the depths of his mind he was already lost in anger and desperation. With his teeth gritting violently, he pushed through his limits, the layers of crystals breaking on top of him as he forced himself to get up.

His furious, blood-crazed eyes stared deeply into Tarasu's soul from underneath his crimson googles.

"FUCK… YOUUUUUU!"

From the palm of his hands, grasping at the upper arm of Tarasu, he let out another wave of earth shattering quake. And then, like breaking the tip of a Prince Rupert's drop, the crystal overgrown that held him down shattered to millions upon millions of little salt mounds.

With a loud bark, Jun pulled Tarasu down once he was freed. And then, with a strong vibration flowing through his right arm, he punched Tarasu square in the jaw.

CRACK! Goes the sound of the crystal bones under Tarasu's skin, his head was pushed sideways, a giant sensation of pain spread over his face as Jun's Quirk blew out most his teeth away.

But he was barely flinching, his body was as rigid as ice almost as if everything that formed his figure was made of diamonds. He took about a second to grasp the shockwave that blew out from the tip of Jun's knuckles. He looked down at his opponent, giving a mildly annoyed glare as his jaw was fixing itself mere seconds later.

But Jun took no time for it to finish fixing, he quickly pulled himself up from the ground before pouncing Tarasu from the front, pushing him down from above as he fueled his hands with a good ounce of his Quirk.

As the momentum unknowingly pulled Tarasu backwards, Jun already had his hands spread over Tarasu's face. And as they landed onto the debris, Jun immediately let out everything he had on the palm of his hand, resulting in another giant shock explosion on Tarasu's face.

"I'M GOING TO WIN!" He shouted, pumping more shockwaves into Tarasu's face. "I'M GOING TO WIIIIN!"

And before he knew it, he was flipped onto his back as Tarasu suddenly grabbed at his wrists. Jun could feel the pain as he landed to the hard debris front side first on his cheekbone. His arm was locked in place as Tarasu had the higher ground once again, pining him down with his foot this time while his other grabbed Jun's wrist in a painful angle.

With a loud crack, Tarasu twisted the hand of his fallen opponent.

Jun's painful scream filled the caved in room, his voice rang through the halls. Tarasu would have been smiling in satisfaction, yet his face showed no signs of feeling pleasure. As it was close to being disfigured from Jun's shock blown directly his bones.

Static buzzed at his earpiece, they couldn't have picked a better time to call him.

"What the hell—BZZZT—'s going on in there?!" The voice of a disbelieved Date Takehiro filled his ear. "We can feel the fucking tremor from all the way here, can you take Hamada down or not?!"

With his teeth gritted, Tarasu shouted into the air. "You fucking… Can't you just fucking wait?! Huh?! Huh?! I'm doing it, asshole! I'm doing it! Tell Takara to kiss my ass once I get this fucker—"

His words were cut off by a sudden force from below him, Jun wasn't down yet.

"I'm… I'm…!" Jun choked out before exploding, "I'M JUN FUCKING HAMADA!"

And before Tarasu knew it, Jun crashed his head into the pile of debris under him. The results were catastrophic, and the two of them once again fell down into a dark pit towards the level below them. The giant powerful earthquake stopped instantly the moment the two teenagers were engulfed by darkness, along with more of the floors from their first and second level caving in, creating a bigger destruction to the insides of the mall.

.

"Hello?!"

A pair of high heels clicked around the concrete ground impatiently as the person wearing it was hastily walking back and forth with her finger in her ear.

"Hello?!"

Date watched from afar, also silently waiting for a response from Tarasu. But what came after was only static.

"BZZZT! —'m doing it—BZZZT! —hole! I'm doing it! —BZZZT! –"

"HEY!" Suki shouted to the air. "Are the heroes taken down, or not?! HELLO?!"

She scraped off the earpiece from her ear, looking at it in disgust as she looked at it while being held between two fingers in front of her. She threw it to the ground with all her strength, breaking it in contact to the concrete.

"Goddammit…" Suki Takara cursed as she had already given up on Tarasu.

She stood by one of her lackeys, Date Takehiro, who merely stared at her in bewilderment. He was standing next to the giant artificial rocket, while he himself was leaning against a lone wall near him.

Suki slowly started to breathe more properly, feeling herself calming down in the process. "Okay, alright, everything's going according to plan. Both Orimura and Tsukinose are already onto us, Kobayashi is still engaged in a fight with Hamada… yeah… yeah… that's good, that's… great… Tsukinose is close and I… and this time I will beat her down…"

"Uhhh, yeah…" Date suddenly piped in, feeling a tad bit uncomfortable watching a girl dressed in an illusionist's costume stressing on about killing someone. "Wouldn't it be… y'know… logical to just have me run out of here with the rocket in my hand? I mean, I could actually run a fucking mile in a minute…"

Suki averted her gaze to her teammate. "No, stay here. Don't let the rocket out of your sight."

"What?" Date asked in confusion. "Why?"

"BECAUSE I SAID SO!" Suki shouted at him, forcing Date to reel back. "DON'T MAKE ME FUCKING ASK YOU TWICE!"

She strode away with her eyes casted downwards, her heartbeat hammering against her ribcage in a sudden rush of aggravation that filled her chest. She tipped the front of her top hat as she stopped by the edge of the building roof that she stood on. Under her was a descent, falling into several levels below to another concrete ground, filled with dozens upon dozens of metal beams spread across the land.

An oncoming breeze rushed through her ear. The faint smell of cement entered her nose, her surroundings giving off the imminent feeling of dystopia. Around her was just empty space, like a parking lot with no cars.

Empty, just like her heart.

"After I win… there will be nothing slowing me down anymore…" She said to herself as she stared at her curled-up fist. "I can do it… I can push my Quirk to my limits if it meant winning!"

Should Kaori find them here, she wouldn't have a chance to ambush the from anywhere, as they would be levels above the ground floor. They probably needed to do a lot of climbing if they wished to get up to this point from below. Regardless, Suki was dying to meet her.

After a few seconds, Suki sighed, her shoulders slouching down. Why was she doing this? This too much of a bother for her to do… Her heart welled up in regret and confusion, but some part of her knew that she had to do this.

If she didn't, she couldn't become more than she was… just a plaything.

That's all she ever was, a thing to be played around. She needed to show the world that they had not a chain to hold her down and pull her away from what she wanted to become.

What a joke, she couldn't believe that she had agreed with Jun out of everyone else… just because she believed that nobody should ever be pushed around by anyone. She would be lying if she hadn't cringed when she heard Kaori Tsukinose and him screaming in the background of Tarasu's frequency.

She was still as high on her horse as a skyscraper, Suki assumed. And she couldn't believe she had used up all these months living with such stuck-up bitch.

If beating her was all it took to prove Suki's worth, then she didn't need to do anything else.

Yes… it all came down to climbing up to the top of the ladder by herself. She was stronger than all of them, and she never had the luxury of being helped by anyone.

She had no choice; her way was the only way.

Both Suki and Dater heard something whistling, they averted their gazes towards the source of said noise. They realized that they were then looking upwards towards the sky as a gleaming object dived down onto them.

They didn't know what it was, but it was coming for Suki. Before they knew that a knife was literally falling down on her face, a bright light took over their visions.

In a split second, Suki felt the world freeze as she stared into the eyes of Kaori Tsukinose; holding a knife over her throat.

The same eyes reflected the abhorrence inside, mirroring her opponent.

This was going to be the endgame.

.

CRACK!

POW!

Tarasu flew across the room as Jun's fist connected with his nose. A sickening crack rang out across the room as the diamond-cladded boy crashed into several more pillars, burying him with the floor above them that fell victim to the lack of support beams.

But what came after was even more painful as Jun suddenly curled up, hugging at his punching arm in great agony.

"AAAARRGH!" He cried out. Tears, sweat, and drool dripped down his chin as he kept holding on to his arm.

Seconds later, he went on to curse the universe inside his head, hoping that would drive the pain out. Huffing deeply, biting the inner walls of his cheeks, these were the methods he used to keep himself alive.

He stood by another mountain of concrete debris, dust smoke covering every inch of his body. His costume was in tatters, his mask had one of his crimson goggles cracked, and the metallic knuckles on top of his shaky hand had already been bent several times from every time he threw a punch.

His breaths turned raspy, his lungs burning in exhaustion. And worse of all, he couldn't seem to create anymore shockwaves from the tip of his fingers.

A sudden realization hit him.

He was…

He had lost the ability to activate his Quirk.

With a rather shaken expression, he lifted his arms up. His eyes stared hopelessly at his violently shaking hands, almost as if they were broken. Had his Quirk backfired on him? Was this the risk he took just to give it all?

NO!

IT WAS NOT ENOUGH!

"Come on, you little shit…" Jun cursed to himself as he tried to clasp his hands together to shake the violent shaking on his bones. "I CAN STILL GO OOON!"

There was still more to him, he believed with every ounce of mental strength left inside his mind. But, in reality, there was a voice in the back of his head thinking that perhaps… he wasn't going to survive.

"NO! NO! I can… still…" Jun rammed his fists to his forehead, trying to drive those thoughts away.

But his mind kept speaking to him, telling him that he wasn't going to win, he wasn't going to live much longer. His mind kept jeering at him about how Tsukinose was right all along, that perhaps he was wrong.

"FUCK OFF! FUCK OFF!" He yelled inside his mind, as his legs were close to giving up.

Slowly, second by second, he managed to find himself kneeling down on top the debris. His words had been hitched inside his throat, only an angry, raspy plead could be heard coming out of his mouth. He was sounding more and more like an animal; a sick, suffering animal… almost slowly marching towards its death.

Jun was more or less the same, the moment he realized that he had probably going to die right then made his head spinning in explosions upon explosions of emotions. Fear and hopelessness, anger and hatred, the four of them waged war inside his mind.

He was dying.

That was right.

Which was why he couldn't give up just yet.

He still needed to prove something.

A groan brought him out of his inner conflicts, making him unknowingly realize that he himself was crying from the pain that shook his entire body from top to bottom. He stopped thinking completely, feeling a sudden shudder running down his spine.

He proceeded to get himself off of his kneeling position, slowly managing to get himself to stand straight.

He looked forward, waiting for the dust cloud to disperse. Until a bare-bodied teenager came to view.

"Ah jas kan' ge' i' 'hrough ya, kan ae?" Tarasu slurred, his body slowly sliding down the broken pillar that he had crashed into earlier. With his hand on his chin, he repositioned his joints with a light cracking noise. "How long do you plan on taking me on?"

His voice seemed different, miles away from the maniacal laugh that he had gave off just minutes ago, almost as if he was too tired to do so.

But to Jun, something about him seemed more… terrifying.

Unknowingly, the shorter boy took a wary step back, subconsciously pulling himself back. The bravado that he once had, the boldness that shaped every inch of his effort, all had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Oi… Hamada… I'm speaking to you…" Tarasu called out again, his dark eyes met with Jun's. "Do you think I'm an idiot? You think I wouldn't notice every time you grabbed the cloth on your chest plate? Or every time you start to convulse when you let out a shockwave?"

He lifted himself up from where he had sat; on the floor in front of the half bent giant concrete pillar behind him. Still eyeing Jun in the eye.

Jun could only stare in disbelief, wondering how after everything he had given the fight was still not done yet.

"You got guts, Hamada. I'll give you that." Tarasu told him. "But in the end… you're just going to lose anyway!"

Step… Step… Goes the muffled sound of Tarasu's bare feet hitting against the concrete floor, every debris and pebble under his feet let out a loud crunching noise. From the tip of his knuckles, diamonds began to grow and grow until the upper side of his hand was nothing more than light blue and crystal.

Jun could feel himself taking more and more steps back, even if he did scream into his head telling himself to stop. Subconsciously, his body knew he couldn't take anymore.

"You hear that!?" Tarasu suddenly barked out. "You are only prolonging the inevitable! How infuriating! You're doing nothing to help anyone at all, not even yourself!"

Jun suddenly stopped moving, his feet rooted to the ground.

"Listen here, you little bastard!" Tarasu suddenly barked at him, his diamond grown fists clenching and cracking. "You think I'm playing?! You're a mere second away from being six feet underground! And what the hell are you doing about it?!"

Jun started shaking, but the pain was not there anymore. Only slowly boiling anger.

"You're wasting… every strength that you have, do you even realize that?! I can't stress it anymore of how stupid you actually are!" Tarasu shouted at him, the ridge of his cheekbones began to be filled with protruding diamonds. "You're nothing! You're useless! Every effort that you can hope to give can only fucking hurt yourself even more! Jesus, how can anyone be so fucking stupid as you?!"

"Shut up."

Seconds later, everything seemed to be running out of time. His life, his goal, and even his hopes. All almost seemed in vain.

Until a mild static rang his ear.

"Jun!" Spoke the voice from his earpiece, one belonging from Seiji Orimura. "Jun, get out of there—BZZZT! —need your help! Kaori's in danger and I don't think we can hold our position long! You need to—"

"I can still fight…" Jun said under his breath.

Silence.

"… W-what?"

"I CAN STILL FUCKING FIGHT!"

Tarasu stopped, eyeing Jun in mild shock.

Jun merely casted a downwards gaze, but his eyes are still level-headed with Tarasu Kobayashi. His body rigid, unmoving between the winds of dust and chaos. Tension began to build between them, almost as if they were waiting to see who would strike first.

Jun made a loud sigh, looking up from where he stood. His eyes seemed different. They were red, bloodshot from the cries of pain. But something else seemed familiar within it.

"Just shut up and fight me." He continued on, now towards the opponent in front of him.

"What the hell..." Tarasu remarked, feeling a bit underwhelmed. "But you're also the single most fucking delusional guy I have ever met."

"LOOK AT ME!" Jun suddenly burst out, earning an echo bouncing around him as he faced his opponent with a beastlike scowl. "LOOK AT ME AND TELL ME THAT I'M STILL ALIVE! TELL ME THAT I CAN STILL FIGHT!"

Something about his anger seemed indirectly directed. Tarasu had the feeling that he wasn't actually 8talking to him, but rather, it was like every inch of his mind was speaking to someone who he had been hating for a long time now.

Someone who was oh-so different from Jun, enough to made him abhor their existence.

Tarasu felt like he had just flipped a switch in Jun. In lest than a second later, he heard him shout.

"I'M GOING TO WIN! I'M GOING TO FUCKING WIN AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!"

His rage rang through the halls, between the pillars and through the dust filled hallways. Tarasu could only stare in awe and disbelief, feeling rather disregarded.

The two stared each other, moments after, they rushed at each other again. Jun, now putting aside all of his physical pain, he cocked back his arm for another strike, one that would kill Tarasu Kobayashi in the instant it connected with his body.

As the vibrating fist clashed with a shield made out of the diamonds, the interior of the mall exploded with a loud THOOOOOM!

.

"NGHHH—GAH!" Kaori screamed out as she flopped down onto the concrete ground with painful thud.

She scrambled on her limbs, her body sweating profusely. With a forced glance, she looked up, biting her lips trying to hold down her infuriation as she let her gaze fall upon the towering Suki Takara.

The illusionist merely clicked her tongue, watching the great Kaori Tsukinose rendered completely powerless and at the mercy of her Quirk, moments before the purple haze in her eyes wore off. Gullible, completely gullible. She couldn't wait to find herself finally at the winning spot, rubbing salt on the wounds of her fallen enemies.

As Kaori writhed on the ground, trying to regain her composure, Suki went through all the things that somehow made her opponent's ambush go wrong.

One simple abnormality in her plan: Seiji Orimura was nowhere to be seen.

Suki merely glanced sideways at her companion, Date Takehiro, to confirm that he himself had not seen anyone from here to a mile away.

With a sigh, Suki turned to Kaori once again. "Really? And you think you can convince me saying that he's not here?"

"I… told you," Kaori winced, but still strong nonetheless, "there's just me… I'm going to be the one who'll win the match!"

"So confident…" Suki remarked with a disgusted scowl. And then, she swung her foot straight into Kaori's stomach, earning a pained gasp from her. "I HATE IT!"

Date could only watch in silent, still holding on to the giant rocket while leaning idly onto a wall. Deep inside he knew that it was never his place to interfere with whatever Suki Takara was dealing with, not that he would care about it in the first place, but somehow, she had been acting more… solely dependent even though the whole point of the Battle Trial was to practice teamwork.

He was at a standstill, but he wanted to win as well, that part didn't need to be questioned once again. But even so, it didn't feel like it had been worth all the effort. Why would it have had to? It's not like Suki's letting him do anything in the first place.

Not even letting him find Seiji Orimura, for instance. He knew that that was the top priority, but why wasn't she letting themselves focus on that?

"You people disgust me so much!" Suki hissed in anger as she continued on to hit Kaori with the bottom side of her shoe. "You're probably thinking about how you're going to get out of this mess, yeah? You think you have some sort of trick up your sleeve, don't you?"

She proceeded on to dive her hand down before grabbing locks of Kaori's raven black hair, forcing her closer to Suki's mouth as she bent down to her ear.

"Well, guess what?" Suki taunted, feeling a satisfactory pleasure from Kaori's groans of pain. "I'm going to win all by myself! Maybe then you'll realize how strong I am! Have you realize where you stand, yet, Tsukinose?!"

She threw Kaori's head away from her grasp, before looking towards her surrounding in apparent vexation.

"YOU HEAR THAT, ORIMURA?!" She shouted into the horizon, her voice echoing and reverting back her current overwhelming emotions. "YOU ALL HAVE GOT NOTHING COMPARED TO ME!"

The sheer, hatred filled resolve in her voice shook the atmosphere all by itself. Truly, she wasn't going to let anyone bring her down. Her perseverance had indeed proved to be quite strong. She had come from an abusive family, after all.

Every day was like hell back then, which was why she was going to show them true hell right here, right now. This… this was how she would show her true potential.

The wind caught her standing figure, flapping the hems of her skirt and cape in an ominous way. She was indeed, a descendant of a villain.

Truth be told, Seiji almost actually felt jealous.

Hiding behind a concrete wall, far from where Suki and Kaori was, he gritted his teeth in stress. In his crouching position, he waited patiently for a signal from Kaori. But he doubted that she could do much as she looked much like a trapped animal at this point.

He tried hiding his worry, breathing in and out of his lungs slowly and steadily. This was the moment he actually felt like he was cornered and wasn't given any other options. If all goes according to their plan, then he wouldn't actually had needed Jun's assistance, as he had tried to ask for it, earlier.

But even so, he actually felt like Kaori had been depending on her strength way too much the last couple of times in the Battle Trial. Almost as if she had been worried about losing.

Seiji couldn't understand, but he also felt like he was in some way responsible.

Kaori had been pushing herself too much; for him, for Jun, and for the rest of the class. Why? What was so important about winning that would've meant the whole universe to her.

When she had bickered about with Jun earlier, it was hard to watch. But Seiji had caught on to what they were saying, and the realization hit him like a truck. If he had knew Jun had been holding on to such pain for a while now, he would've tried to do something.

He was the class rep, after all. It was his responsibility.

But the shorter boy made it so hard to approach him, which was why Seiji couldn't bare to let the class fall apart just because he wanted to meddle in some personal affair.

Nevertheless, he was going to be a hero.

"Goddammit, Jun! We can't do this without you, you know!" Seiji had thought earlier when Jun had ignored his calls for help. "Can we do it? Can we prove to him that we can win? If that was what it took to get him to talk to me, then so be it!"

"Where's Orimura?" Suki spat out calmly, poison was obviously dripping from her lips. Her eyes began to glow purple once more.

The occupants of the roof were then interrupted by a sudden cry of pain, belonging to Kaori Tsukinose. In her point of view, everything seemed chaotic. She couldn't describe the mirage of the suffering that she felt.

Even Date could feel the pain in her mind. He hurriedly approached Suki, "Yo! Hey, come on, what the hell?!"

"STAY THE FUCK BACK!" Suki commanded to him, the haze in her eyes stared at Date's eyes.

He couldn't find it in his giant body any ounce of courage to fight back. But he would be lying to himself if he hadn't said that he wasn't a little bit irritated. This wasn't how you should treat anyone else, rival or otherwise! What was wrong with her?

Seconds passed, and when the hallucinations dispersed, Kaori could only chuckle at the sight of Suki in front of her. "Ask me that again…"

Suki could only grow silent. "We're playing this again, huh? Tch. How can you be so fucking ignorant? I have the high ground! Don't try me!"

Unknown to her, Kaori cracked out a smile. An unhinged one at that. Almost as if her face was smothered in the essence of pure, unshaken relentlessness. Enough to make a man crazy.

She looked up, her smile falling. But she kept a straight face when locking eyes with her opponent. "You're wrong… I do!"

Time stopped, and Suki had no time to comprehend the light that blasted in front of her. Her mind panicked, she knew what this meant, but just before she could interfere with the 'switch' and activate her Quirk, someone else had already taken Kaori's place.

Suki stared into the eyes of Seiji Orimura, now kneeling on the spot Kaori had left on, the grey shade of his pupils marked the determination burning in his heart. In his hand was a throwing knife, enough to fit in his hands.

With a quick swung, he plunged the blade into his thigh.

Pain rushed into his mind, but to Seiji, this was nothing. But to both Suki and Date, as bewilderment struck the expressions of their faces, the sudden burning phantom pain in their thighs made them both reel back in agony.

Seiji wasted no time to pull out the knife seconds later, the blood from his thigh sprayed from his wound. With a quick throw, the knife was flying into the air, aiming at Date as quickly as a bullet.

The lumbering boy gritted his teeth, activating his Quirk to avoid being hit.

With another flash of light, Kaori switched again. But much to her effort, she realized that Date had already disappeared from her line of sight. Her hand had already extended outwards, ready to touch the rocket, only for her effort to be deemed fruitless.

"God… dammit!" Date cursed to himself as he immediately braked his Quirk to stop himself from moving too fast.

The trail that he left behind after he had sped out of harms way, were marked with the hot black blotches from the bottom of his shoe. He looked at Kaori Tsukinose who, after appearing out of nowhere, landing by the place Date had been standing on earlier.

The two stared at each other, tension building up between them.

The rocket was still in his hand, it was safe. He averted his gaze towards Suki, who was too engaged with Seiji at the moment.

"You… fucking dirtbag!" Suki said in irritation at Seiji as her leg gave out from the sudden unknown pain. She stared at him with eyes of purple, the anger in her heart could not be described. "Why did you have to interfere, huh?!"

"Because I'm going to win!" Seiji answered back, the hole in his shorts still gushing out blood. "Whatever it takes!"

"I hate you!" Suki spat back, her throat burning from every hatred that came out of her mouth. "Why can't you just let me win! You're nothing compared to me! I'm stronger, and I'll PROVE IT TO YOU!"

All of a sudden, everything in Seiji's vision turned black.

"AAAAAARGH!" He cried out in pain, his body instinctively clutched itself tightly.

His stomach turned into knots, his legs felled like it was being pulled down to the ground, heavy weight pressed down at his heart like a hydraulic press, and burning, all over his body, like he was being swallowed by the flames of hell.

Suki slowly pulled herself up, walking briskly with an obvious limp on her thigh. Her eyes shown the predatory hue of purple, looking down on the writhing Seiji in abhorrence.

There was hesitation at first, but Suki realized the advantage that she had.

"Well isn't this interesting…" She said with a sneer forming on the edge of her mouth. "Looks like mental pain doesn't trigger your Quirk, huh? Let's see how you like it!"

Under all the suffering, Seiji still managed to stop himself from convulsing. Yes, the illusions on his senses were painful, and he did want someone to end his suffering, but nevertheless… it was still nothing.

"I-I'm… GAH! –I'm not going to back down!" Seiji said in between pained cries.

Suki could not believe how he was still able to move his limbs despite the fact that she knew for sure that she had forced her Quirk to give him every possible pain that she had remembered all throughout her life.

But little did she know that, compared to Seiji, the latter had more tolerance than meets the eye. The scars on his body, for one, said so.

"Is that… all?!" Seiji taunted, clumsily standing on his two feet while the world around him seemed to have been distorted beyond repair. The way he growled at Suki showed of how incredibly persistent he could be. "I thought that was just a tickle!"

"Shut… up!" Suki had no choice, she had to risk backfiring her Quirk just to push back the boy in front of her.

But before she could do anything, it was already too late. Her Quirk had suddenly started to go haywire, quite possibly from the overuse of it. And just when the illusions began to bounce back to herself, earning a painful gasp from herself, Seiji had unknowingly dashed forward.

In just a second later, the two collided with Seiji wrapping his arms around Suki's waist. Their momentum flung them backwards, straight towards the ledge.

"UWOOOH!" Seiji screamed out, the effects of the illusions still lingering in his head. "I'M SEIJI THE IMMORTAL!"

And in an instant, the two disappeared from sight as they both fell out of the top level of the building.

Date stared in disbelief a split second later, watching them disappear from sight. He was about to let his Quirk activate again, instinctively believing that he could somewhat catch a glimpse of them from the edge, but then another flash of blinding light exploded in front of him

"Oh shit!" He cursed in shock, reeling back and dodging the incoming strike.

He stood up, quickly regaining his composure. As he stared into the eyes of Kaori Tsukinose, he realized that they were the only one left on the upper parking lot. In desperation, Date felt like he was in a dilemma.

But when Kaori struck a pose in front of him, he was brought back to life.

"Your fight is with me!" She challenged, despite the fact that she had ben tortured by Suki earlier.

Unmoving, determined eyes stared into a pair of uncertain ones

"Are you insane?!" Date cried out in incredulity. "Yo! What the—your teammate had just fell down the building!"

"All according to plan…" She responded back in a low hiss.

And then, she struck forward, a small knife pointing straight at him, protruding from the gap of her hold. His heartbeat jolted, he knew both him and the rocket was in great danger.

Fortunately for him, he managed to dodge just in time before activating his Quirk once more. And when Kaori was preparing herself for another jump, Date had already dashed away from the scene with what seemed to be a trail of concrete shavings from under his feet.

The lumbering boy zoomed away from sight, going past the many lone walls like drilling himself through a maze. Kaori realized her mistake as she had a difficulty keeping an eye on him.

With a sharp 'tch!' she leaped gracefully towards a lone wall before throwing another knife to the sky. She disappeared in another flash of light, leaving the audience in a cliffhanger.

Monitoring Room - 07:43 a.m.

"Holy fucking shit, what the hell just happened?!"

Mori Kururugi's indeterminate disbelief echoed through the crowd as the class began to turn into a muttering mess.

"How in the hell are they going to survive that fall?" Oboro Kirikagure muttered under his breath.

"Can't you believe the suspense throughout the battle trial?" Yato Shimura said to his teammate, even he himself was taken aback by the sheer intensity in front of him. "It's like watching an anime…"

"Quite… perhaps this might be the correct moment for myself to say: 'Well that escalated quickly'…" Mika Tatsuya commented with a monotone voice, seemingly catching on to Kudou Satou's constant pop culture references.

Everyone else in the room seemed to have lost all of their serenity as the first battle trial seemed to have gone on forever. It hadn't even been past thirty minutes, but the thrill of it made it felt like time had been moving faster in every action that occurred in the artificial city.

Both Tarasu Kobayashi and Jun Hamada, along with Suki Takara, had all earned the title of the most dangerous individual in the room. With Jun and Tarasu both relying on the strength of the offensive and defensive, suppressing each other's powers equally, Suki had shown herself to be quite something else compared to the rest of them.

The class remembered how she went on and had questioned about the decision of the Number One Pro Hero All Might right after they had briefed them about the teamwork training that they were holding earlier today. Perhaps they had thought that Suki was just an awkward character, but the moment she had forced her teammate Date Takehiro to stay back, obsessing about how she was going to win all by her own, they realized how wrong they were.

Jun had also been one of the centers of attentions. There was no doubt that everyone had heard what he and Kaori were bickering about earlier on, but they didn't expect the words 'dying' and 'hypocrite' to come out the raven-haired girl's mouth.

They didn't expect him to be like that at all. But it made so much sense when they started thinking about it.

"You know," Miyu started as she turned to Mori next to her, "there's something I don't understand…"

Mori shot her a confused look, almost as if the both of them were thinking the exact same thing.

"Haven't we have been living under the house with Hamada for about ten months now?" Miyu said to her. "How come we've never noticed anything at all about him? I mean, the guy seemed pretty persistent to use his powers, but it had only been today that it seemed… dangerous… What the hell's up with him?"

The wolf girl had no idea how to answer her question, but before she even opened her mouth, another voice had joined in in their conversation.

"Cardiac tamponade." Said the cheery voice.

And as they glanced sideways, they were met with a shorter boy. His hair struck a light hue of blue, shaggy and unkempt, enough to cover the top part of his large beady eyes. A grin formed under his nose, unknown whether or not it was filled with glee or arrogance.

Kudou Satou merely continued his statement, "It's a clinical syndrome where the heart suffers a compression from the outside, rendering it difficult to pump blood from all the fluid that builds up in the pericardial space. If not treated, pressure would build up on the surface of the heart, thus, reducing ventricular filling, causing an acute failure of blood circulation, and later on, massive organ failure such as pulmonary edema, shock, and death."

Mori and Miyu's face seemed aghast, they couldn't follow every word that came out of the unhinged boy's mouth, but they understood what he meant.

Kudou then proceeded to point at the screen in front of them. "Cardiac tamponade is a medical emergency, and under normal circumstances, Jun should've died at once. But I think that it was due to his Quirk that he can keep himself alive, but certainly not well, for a prolonged period of time. The pericardial heart sac keeps the pericardial fluid around the heart, and in the case of a cardiac tamponade, it should've been impossible for his heart to keep beating under such immense pressure. Perhaps his Quirk triggers the heart to manually control its cardiac output."

He then rambled on to the front of the class, letting everyone hear of what he was saying. "So… in a way, don't you think it's amazing? Jun managed to keep his own heart beating by pumping more and more of his Quirk in it, causing cardiac muscle to pump blood on its own, forcing his heart syndrome at a standby! And not to mention keeping a levelled fight with Tarasu while he is at it!"

Everyone else stared at him in disbelief, unable to express whatever emotions they had flying around their heads. The room went silent, everyone else were staring back at the screen watching the fight between the two would-be gods commence.

It was a fearful thought, to know that death had been waiting at your doorstep, just for you to one day stop making an effort to keep him at bay.

But they still couldn't understand why Jun was willing to go through so much to fight his destiny.

It wasn't like… he was actually trying to be a hero, right?

"It's hard to deduce his illness, not when he was still fighting in full strength without showing any signs of the symptoms. But I'm glad that I could gather up the information myself throughout the months I've been living under him. That being said, I wonder what kind of push he need to fuel his determination…" Kudou wondered, saying every word out loud so the entire room could here.

And then, he unknowingly turned his gaze into the person standing in the back of the monitoring room, making a sly grin, different from his usual maniacal smile.

"Yes… I wonder what it is... Nee~ Mr. Adachi…?"

The lion-haired man stared at him in obvious bewilderment, but then again, he didn't know what to answer him. He merely averted his gaze back onto the screen, as his heart was torn apart by a dilemma that he couldn't fix.

Battle Simulation Field - 07:45 a.m.

Light dispersed through the giant caved in hole on top of them, the concrete dusts began to almost cover their bodies completely as they stood upon yet another mountain of debris.

Tarasu Kobayashi looked down on his prey, blood was trickling down his nose. There was an obvious look of annoyance on his face, the apparent scowl on the edge of his lips was completely mirrored from the one and only, Jun Hamada.

Who, by the time Tarasu had only a quarter of his strength left and almost out of most of his salt supply in every part of his body, was now looking like he was finally about to give in to his disease.

The two had not met eye to eye for a while, as Jun had kept his unmasked head down in exhaustion, his body almost close to falling asleep. And he couldn't do anything as Tarasu approached him once more from the other end of the hill of the debris.

With an angered expression, Tarasu reached out to his neck, pulling the hem of his collar roughly.

But just as Tarasu was in the middle of pulling Jun closer to get a good look of his beaten-up face, trying to confirm if the shorter male had indeed had enough, Jun suddenly lifted his head up before swingin another strike with his right hand at Tarasu.

The greasy-haired boy was almost completely taken aback, just like how he didn't expect Jun still had a bit of fight left in him. Tarasu pushed Jun away, dodging his strike in the matter of seconds, and then, with a quick turn of his body, he kicked Jun sideways right under his ribcage.

The shorter boy suddenly sputtered out blood as he flew and bounced off of the rough floor.

"WHAT NOW, BITCH!" Tarasu taunted, opening up his bare arms in greet. "IN THE END YOU'RE STILL GOING TO LOSE!"

But Jun had heard enough of his mocks, and from his pained position, he forcefully pushed himself up once more.

"I… I can still…" He breathed out, spitting out every taste of blood on his mouth, "I'm not done yet!"

"Don't." Tarasu warned him in an irate way. "Don't even think about think."

He was perplexed on how anyone could be relentless, he would've understood his modus operandi if it weren't for the fact that pushing himself to go on for something identical to a suicide mission.

It actually made Tarasu mad.

Jun kicked the ground under him, growling madly as he dashed up towards Tarasu with his arm cocked back. His expression was quite infuriating, knowing that under all that scowl lay someone who had nothing else to fight for.

Tarasu saw through his attack, and then, with his bare, un-cladded hands, he struck a jab at Jun's head just as the attack that was aimed for him missed by an inch.

Jun stumbled back, dumbfounded. Tarasu took the chance to hit two more strikes against his body, before putting down his elbow against his back. Jun fell down to his knees in a horrible groan, no more shockwaves out of the palm of his hands, no more hope.

"You… little… shit!" Tarasu barked as he kicked Jun on his stomach. "What do you hope to gain from this, huh?! Holy shit, I can't believe anyone could annoy me as much as you! How long do you plan to prolong your death, huh?! Every punch you give are nothing but weak-ass hits!"

He looked down at Jun, the boy was catching his breath.

"You're just wasting your breath…" Tarasu sneered, feeling himself getting a bit drowsy. "Stand down, Hamada. Final warning."

But just before he knew it, hundreds of little concrete dusts got in his eyes. Tarasu reeled back with a loud shout, realizing that Jun had just threw grey sand at him.

In an instant, Jun got up and grabbed at Tarasu's leg. As the hunchbacked boy fell backwards with a loud thud, Jun quickly climbed up on top of his chest. He huffed and puffed with all his might, feeling his lungs slowly getting more and more cramped.

"I can still f—fuh—fight…" He clenched his cheeks in, muttering under his breaths.

Every breath out of his nose came out bursting with snot, as his body began to try and cool itself from overheating. But Jun never let his body rest. Never. And as he was close to feeling his heart to suddenly stop at any second, he gave his last ounce of strength to both his arms as he continued to pound Tarasu's face with his balled hands.

"I… can… f-fight…" He mumbled out again, air began to stop being present from his lungs.

His fists went down with a continuous smack, and every pause as he lifted his hands, Tarasu could see the waterfall of tears streaming down his face. Whether it was from fear, pain, or sadness, he did not know.

Nonetheless, he needed to defend himself, and Tarasu began to grow his last ounce of diamonds out of his chest and forehead. Enough to block the rest of the impending attacks.

"I can… I can…"

Every gasp, every hit, it was the last effort Jun had to give. Because he could feel himself slowly fading away.

And just as he was about to land another blow for the umpteenth time, something inside his chest jolted. And that was when Tarasu finally had the chance to hold up his hands before it managed to hit his face again.

The two engaged in a struggle, as Tarasu still had his hands up, looking right at Jun with an uneased expression, and Jun was still trying to give it all, even though he could feel his chest unmoving.

Under him, Tarasu could feel the strength in the boy's arm slowly giving away, but the weight on his stomach was still pining him down.

When he looked up, he didn't expect to see Jun making a handful of emotions with his face alone. His bloodshot eyes, gleaming brown under the sunlight, held an enormous feeling of hopelessness. Tarasu could say nothing, do nothing, he could only stare.

Jun's breath began to turn into chokes, almost as if he was gasping for air. His eyes stopped being filled with anything, it almost resembled a dead person as the boy's head flopped up and down on his neck.

"I… I… I'm sorry… I'm not weak… I'm not… I can s-s-still… Haaah… Haaah…"

Jun's voice could no longer be heard, it was disappearing away inside his throat. Tarasu stared at him from below, the tears of the shorter boy falling onto his bare shoulderblade. Everything seemed to be a mess of emotions.

Until he started to scream…

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" And the whole world came tumbling down as a powerful shockwave began to blow the dusty air around them.

Tarasu could feel his heart stop for less than a second, but much to his dismay, it was not the last quake Jun gave.

Moments after moments, like a very weak heartbeat, shockwaves exploded out of Jun's chest with a THOOOM! Shocking anything in a mile radius.

A second passed, and another THOOOM! exploded out.

The mall and everything in it shook and tremored fearfully under the mighty Jun Hamada's power. But after this, there was no turning back. Jun had already taken the risk once, what was the harm to end it all?

And after five seconds, everything around them began to break down.

.

Date Takehiro zoomed throughout the perimeter of the artificial city in about 100 miles an hour, speeding like a bullet out of a gun.

There were several buildings on his path, in which he crashed into most of them. But throughout the run, he had ineffectively tried to steer left and right in a rather long turn. To him the world seemed blurry and fast.

And when it was almost three minutes after his run, he could feel himself slowly getting robbed of his energy on the 25th building that he had ran through.

He tried looking back, the wind was still on his hair and the rocket on his shoulder, there was no sign of Kaori Tsukinose anywhere.

He slowed down, almost prominently. His legs shaking and his feet burning as he forced a brake onto the concrete ground. Just as he was then merely several dozen feet away from a concrete wall, he smelled burning and dust under his feet.

Looking back, he saw shoe marks going backwards longer than he had anticipated that burned the concrete from the floor with the sheer force of his braking power.

He tried to take a look around the perimeter, getting himself familiar with his surroundings. He had been right, earlier; this artificial city was just one big pile obstacles put around the area like a city made out of Lego.

The area on where he was, looked more like a sight coming from that of a factory landfill, or something similar, due to the fact that there were hundreds upon hundreds of pipes and tubes, along with what seemed like cylindrical feeders and tube containers, followed by dozens upon dozens of little rectangular buildings with triangular roofs.

When he had already realized the mall behind him, just a mere single run away from where he stood, he couldn't believe the sheer sight of it from up close. UA was rich, but he still couldn't bring himself to believe that they were that rich.

And to think that Tarasu and Jun was destroying everything, too…

Nonetheless, he needed to keep himself level-headed with his surroundings. There was no telling when Kaori Tsukinose was going to strike.

He glanced at the giant rocket on his shoulder, surprised that it weighted close to nothing. He felt more weighted by the fact that Suki Takara had left him with a task he didn't even know how to do it.

Moments later, something occured.

THOOOM!

"OH MY—" Before he could finish his sentence, the world under him began to shake, the wind had suddenly went crazy. Was this because he had been standing so close to where Tarasu and Jun had been battling earlier?

The breeze was somewhat only strong enough to blow every edge of his navy-blue hair, but the second he realized that he was losing his footing, the sheer power of Jun's Quirk was no joke. He had witnessed it firsthand, after all. But that was months ago, when they were fighting Mr. Adachi head on.

Then, the second explosion came, and this one was even more powerful than before.

Something about this one felt different, though…

Almost as if it was more dangerous…

That was probably because of the pieces of the mall flying towards him from the sky.

"… Wait…"

And just like that, a seven-foot piece of concrete fell near from where he stood. His heart jolted out of his ribcage, and he began to instinctively dash out of the open field while running away from the many rains of debris that was falling his way.

Every crash let out a loud sickening crack onto the concrete ground, causing massive eruptions of dusts all over the area. Date had not the luxury of closing his nose in his run, he could feel the skin of his face and his eyes getting intruded by the little particles of concrete.

"SHIT!" Date cursed out as he kept an accelerated pace out of the area, avoiding any falling debris. "SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"

The explosions of shockwaves kept coming with a steady pause, almost like a heartbeat. A really, really, weak heartbeat.

He couldn't focus on anything else, what was on his mind was only the instinct to run. The rocket on his shoulder was quite the poor object, and there was nothing else that can free it from being pulled around wherever he went.

Kaori Tsukinose was finally out of his mind, he sped away out of the perimeter in a single run.

But little did he knew the girl had been following him all the time.

She had eyed him from afar, wasting no time to chase him down by keeping a continuous switch with whatever object she could throw as far as she could. Considering the she had run out of knifes a few minutes ago, she had settled with any rocks or big pebbles enough for her to envision in space.

The second she was almost a few jumps away from her target, a shockwave exploded out of the mall. And the result, dozens upon dozens of giant debris raining down on them.

She stopped, watching the hail of concrete drive away Date from his resting spot, but then she had a looming fear filling her head.

"Jun…"

.

Seiji's head was shaking, ringing, and stinging.

He pulled himself up, uncaring for whatever was going on around him.

The feeling of the rough concrete under the palm of his hands somehow made him realize where he currently was, but the tremor that shook it made him wonder if he was at least laying on a moving piece of rock.

After a bit of a haze, he remembered one simple piece of the puzzle that made him remember of what happened.

"Shit… my back…" He groaned to himself, looking downwards with a bit of tears inside his eyes. "Yep… shouldn't have dived from the third floor…"

Even though there was nothing else around him, or so he felt, he knew that something was missing. Something that he had grabbed onto earlier when he had fallen.

He tried to stand, but the spine on his back was refusing to let him up. And then, he ultimately gave in to the cramp, left with no choice but to survey the area around him with a perplexed expression. Now that he thought about it, where did that constant tremor come from?

He heard a soft mumble, a pained cry. He shot his head up and saw Suki Takara laying on her side in front of him.

In a flurry of emotions, he pushed himself forward, crawling with his four limbs. Then, just as he was now close enough to witness her feeble form, he saw something quite horrific.

Blood, blood everywhere. She wasn't breathing. Seiji wasn't even sure if she was even alive anymore. Her body was a mess, he couldn't bare himself to look at the sheer intensity of its damage. But there were certainly parts that weren't to bend the way it was supposed to.

He wanted to puke.

"Oh no…" Seiji breathed out, a weight filled with guilt pulling down his chest. "Oh no, no, no, no!"

He instinctively looked around him, aggressively turning his head left and right, trying to find anyone more qualified to help her. He saw a mound of what seemed like cement, possibly the medium that had caught their fall.

But… why did he survive.

This wasn't fair.

This wasn't what he wanted.

"Noooo… noooo…" He moaned out, looking hopelessly at Suki's limp body. He crouched closer, bowing his head to the ground, he hid his face between his arms, shaking uncontrollably.

This was it, there was no hope for him. He had failed in being a hero. How can he be so stupid? If only there was a way to go back in time… or at least apologize to Suki before she… she…

"Why do you want to be a hero so bad?"

Like thunder, his head shot up in less than a second. The body was gone, there was no more blood, but he saw a figure standing in front of him. He could see medium heeled boots in front of him, but he didn't dare to look at the girl wearing it.

Suki merely gave a sour expression as she stared at Seiji's saddened form beneath her. Her top hat was nowhere to be seen, and her fair skinned face was stained with grey concrete dusts.

There was a hue of purple in her eyes, staring into Seiji's bloodshot ones.

"Suki…" Seiji breathed out, still in a bit of a shock. "W-what the…"

"Why—" Suki repeated, "—do you want to be a hero so bad?"

Silence overwhelmed them, until she continued on. "Don't you think it's sickening, for someone to suck up to anyone? Why would you let yourself be pushed around, being told what to do, by some… creep in a spandex? Why would you go so far just to become someone who you don't even know you'll be? I-I don't understand… I don't understand why you... and Tsukinose… and everyone else… why would you want to be heroes even though you are villains…"

"You," Seiji started after a long pause, "are not the same as them."

He felt like he needed to speak, if it meant stopping the tears that was trickling down from the edge of her eyes.

"You ruined… everything…" Suki responded, biting her bottom lip. "I've tried… all my life, to become someone I am not. And what do I get in turn? Being pushed around by someone whose old man was rich enough to buy her a new suit…"

"That's not true." Seiji told her, still in his pathetic kneeling form. "Kaori understood us more than anyone else…"

"Then why won't you just let me be?!" Suki barked at him. "Do I not deserve some victory?! I've done everything all by myself! But yet I wasn't congratulated by anyone! You'll never understand the pain I've been through! You have no rights to tell me what to do! I'm not like your 'hero' friends!"

Seiji's lips trembled in her wake, there was so much he wanted to say. But somehow, he couldn't let his voice out. He merely stared at her from below, with eyes full of hope.

And then suddenly, the ground started to explode. Tremors filled the concrete under their feet, cracking every piece of flooring it could find. Both Suki and Seiji had felt like being put in a washing machine, they quickly began to lose their balance.

Suki tried to stop herself from falling down by spreading her arms, and Seiji had been holding on to the floor from the beginning. The two had a look of fear splattered across their faces.

That wasn't until Seiji managed to hear something from above them.

Around them was a landmass filled with towering metal beams, forming a skeletal figure of an unfinished building. Stacks upon stacks of these metal beams began to shake from the earthquake, and one horizontal beam had broken off from its main post.

Seiji had only a split second of reaction before the beam fell on top of Suki. With fear, and a clear image of a bloodied body of Suki Takara in his mind, he pushed his legs forward.

He caught her waist just in time to bring her down, and he wasted to time to shield her from above.

Suki's eyes were as wide as plates when she saw that, above them, the structure of the unfinished building was falling down on them. And Seiji was between her.

With a loud metallic crash, the beams had all fallen down on top of Seiji. The boy could be seen wincing in pain as he gritted his teeth, trying to drive the pain from supporting all the weight of the metal beams on his back.

Suki was in shock, she couldn't feel the pain that was transferred from Seiji's body. She couldn't feel anything at all, but the feeling of hopelessness.

They couldn't hear anything else but metal hitting upon metal as the beam structures were still falling down on top of each other. Light had mostly been covered up from the number of beams covering them from above.

The girl under him saw blood dripping from the top of his head, seconds after the chaos stopped. Their hearts were hammering under their ribcage in suspense.

Suki had trembled in fear, her lips quivering trying to hold back the scream that was lodged in her throat. She could suddenly feel pain in her back slowly spreading all over her body. She didn't' want imagine the pain Seiji was going through.

The dust around them began to disperse, light had crept into the gaps of the beams and shone Suki's tear-stricken face. She couldn't breathe from the amount of dusts in the air, but she couldn't cough in front of Seiji.

But then, she managed to let out one word from between the fear and pain. "Why...?"

She could hear Seiji breathing steadily, blood from his head had spilled and trickled down his face. Suki stared at his shaking figure trying to push the weight of the beams upwards.

"I… was always the one limping behind…" Seiji said with a raspy voice. "When I… came to UA… I couldn't believe—GAH! — I-I wanted to do… my best… but I seem to always fail at everything I do… Quirk Apprehension Tests… Weekly Exams… I couldn't… follow the rest of the class…"

A moment of silence, everything else was unmoving. There were no more tremors, just the sound of their beating hearts. Then, Suki saw him cracking a smile.

"But even so… Kaori had always… been there to help m-me… Everything I do… was because of her… and Mori, and… Miyu… and Oboro, and Yato… those guys are still supporting me… I didn't want to fall behind… I never wanted to… become the husk… I was before…" His smile fell, then, he looked down at Suki. "B-but… I can never do it alone… the reason I keep fighting is because… I still need my… friends… And we still need you… Suki Takara… I will still… do my best…"

The girl below him could not think straight, she couldn't do so when she was in a mix of a great phantom weight on her back, and a flurry of unknown emotions. Both were equally painful.

But his last words had struck her straight through her frozen heart.

"Let's… become… heroes… together…"

She never would've have asked for someone to say that to her… to make her feel special.

All her life she was just… a plaything…

… being pushed around and… being told what to do…

Until now…

She wanted to mutter out, "I'm sorry…", but the words just wouldn't come out of her mouth. In her mind, she had a wandering thought invading her capability of thinking straight; she felt like it would be nice to be like this for a while.

And then, from the dead silence of the outside world, a voice broke out.

"BATTLE TRIAL HAS ENDED…"

"VILLAIN TEAM WON…"

.

From the gaps of the giant concrete debris, came out Date Takehiro, breathing in and out furiously as he tried to catch his breath.

After running for a continuous pace and without rest, it really took the toll on his energy.

He needed to stop doing this.

He looked at the rocket beside him, still untouched.

He looked at the world around him, in chaos and broken apart from the hailstorm of debris. But he couldn't say the same for whatever was left of the artificial city,

He tried to take a rest on a nearby fallen concrete, only for his silent space to be intruded by a sudden booming voice.

"BATTLE TRIAL HAS ENDED."

"VILLAIN TEAM WON."

.

Kaori Tsukinose bit her bottom lip with all her might, feeling the pain seeping into her brain.

But it didn't matter, what mattered right now was to save Jun Hamada.

In front of her was a limp body of a boy, almost as short as her. He was unmoving and wasn't looking like he was going to wake up anytime soon. The costume on his body was in tatters, and he was covered by thousands of concrete dusts.

Around the two of them was the aftermath of what he had done. Kaori had not seen him pushing himself to his limits, but she damn well knew that that was what he did.

And now, the result, he wasn't giving off any pulse from his chest.

Kaori kept mumbling, in her mind she had only one goal. With both her palms stacked on top of one another, she pushed down Jun's bare chest with all her strength.

One, two, three, four, and all the way to thirty compressions.

She bent down to his face, pinching his nose and putting her mouth against his. She blew in every leftover air she had on her lungs, and she did this twice.

After she pulled away, she gave him another set of thirty compressions.

With how her own heartbeat was beating furiously under her ribcage, deafening her ear with every pulse, she didn't know which of them was the most endangered one.

She wanted to cry from exasperation, but she couldn't, not when she had to concentrate.

On top of the giant pile of what was left of the demolished mall, light shone onto their figure. The girl was breathing nonsensically, her face scrunching up in hopelessness as the boy below her had no shown any sign of living.

"N-no…" She suddenly moaned out. "Nooo…"

All seemed to be in vain, Jun was still unconscious and unbreathing, until she heard someone from beside her.

"Move." Tarasu Kobayashi demanded, holding his broken arm as he walked over towards the two.

Kaori had wondered what the boy could possibly want, but when she saw one of his hand suddenly turning into a giant spike, with the end of it thin enough to be called a needle, she became even more perplexed.

At first, she wanted to interfere when Tarasu sat beside her, looming over the body of Jun Hamada, but she realized that she herself had not a clue on how to save him.

In an instant, Tarasu cocked back his arm and plunged the spike onto the area just under his ribcage. Kaori closed her eyes to avoid herself from seeing the terrifying operation occur before her.

With a clench of his jaw, Tarasu pulled out his spike from Jun's chest. And then, from the puncture wound Tarasu created, a gush of blood exploded out of his chest.

Jun's body jolted awake, but the blood showed no sign of stopping. In Kaori's eyes, everything was red, her mind went blank as her face paled. She just saw something she didn't expect Tarasu would do. However, through the gaps of her fingers after she covered her face in shock, she could see Jun's body gasping for breath.

After a few seconds later, Jun's body stopped convulsing, only for his body to start trembling. Kaori could not believe his eyes when she saw his chest rising and falling.

He was breathing.

"He's a tough one," Tarasu commented with a stern expression, he then turned to Kaori. "Keep an eye on this idiot from now on."

"Kobayashi," Kaori started, not knowing of what to say. Her attention was still stuck onto Jun's bleeding wound. "Thank you."

"Huh?!" Tarasu barked out, a disgusted look splattered on his face. "For what?! I didn't do anything!"

Kaori could only create a blank expression on top of her rather perplexed emotion, she couldn't say anything else. Her hand fell upon Jun Hamada's, the look on his face as he was still drifting away, unconscious.

"Cold…" Kaori thought as she stroked the palm of his hand.

Perhaps… her effort was not enough.

She had promised Seiji that she will make Jun speak to him. Truth be told she had thought of it as a place not for her to meddle in. But when she looked at Jun and what he could do, she realized that perhaps making him closer to the class was the top priority.

Her future had depended on it, after all. And she remembered how Jun Hamada had tried to close the curtains on it.

She couldn't let it happen again.

For Jun and herself.

If what Seiji said was right, then she shouldn't give up just yet.

She was yet to survive the first semester. She knows she needed to survive the second one together with Jun.

Her musings were stopped when a booming voice intruded her ear.

"BATTLE TRIAL HAS ENDED."

"VILLAIN TEAM WON."

She exchanged glances with Tarasu Kobayashi. The two sat there on top of the giant mountain of debris, surrounded by the rest of the untouched artificial city.

The sun blared above them, shining down upon whatever was left of the giant mall. The wind brought back a breeze, the chill of the summer marked the start of their real test to become heroes.

Battle Simulation Field - 08:00 a.m.

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Bicc chapter today...

yeee...

Alright, now, sorry for the late update. There's been a bit of a problem regarding this chapter. However, I thankfully managed to finish it just in time before two months have passed (which... isn't really something to celebrate about).

I actually haven't made Jun's illness a thing in the original story. GiintokiSakata even mentioned how he was too OP. At first the only drawback I added to him was just "His Quirk hurts himself", but I felt like something was missing. So, after a trip to a medical school in the city, I came across something that would be PERFECT for Jun (not saying that illnesses are good and people should have them) and decided to add it in the story.

And, as for the rest of the characters, I'm sorry if I had represented them differently from what you've originally wrote.

Oh yeah, and a bicc bicc thanks for GiintokiSakata for helping me with this one. I owe you one, mate!

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Ahem...

Now that that's out of the way...

There's a surprise for y'all in my DA account.

Take your time to check it out. You can give some feedback if you'd like.

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Alright, that's all from me, today!

See you next chapter!

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Jun had done it. He didn't believe he would've find himself unable to use his powers anymore... or else he would face his own consequences...

Was Seiji's words enough to make Suki change her way of thinking? Will she be finally able to rely on others now?

Kaori had realized the importance of having Jun on the class, and can she convince him to stay with the help of Tarasu?

FIGHT! Mori, Miyu, and Kudou against Yato, Oboro, and Mika! LOOK FORWARD TO IT!

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R&R