Abandoned Warehouse, Okayama Prefecture, 15:30

Best Jeanist and his interns proceeded carefully through the abandoned warehouse. Best Jeanist had driven them here, and his car was parked outside. The entranceway and surrounding rooms had been mostly empty, with some cobwebs scattered around, as well as the general layer of dust. As they stepped into the next main hall, Best Jeanist began to speak.

"Odd…I suppose we shouldn't have expected some big breakthrough anyway. This guy seems to relocate quickly. Okay, the room splits off into two rooms here. How about you two check that room over there on the left? I'll take the one on the right. Remember; please have each other's' backs. Your teamwork will be vital here."

Both students nodded and proceeded to the left room. Meanwhile Best Jeanist walked cautiously into the room on the right. This large, expansive room had lots of medical equipment; there was no dust on these, suggesting recent use. As Best Jeanist moved forward, he came across a large monitor. It was divided into about 16 camera feeds, showing various locations around the Chugoku region as well as one in Central Tokyo. Jeanist recognised a few of these locations as attack sites.

"Such a large-scale surveillance op…this is professionally done." He muttered, but then a clattering sound behind him made him spin around. He heard what seemed like screeching metal on the floor. Then slowly, a large black mech appeared from the shadows. Connected to it was a ghoulish, emaciated woman with sunken eyes and bruises and cuts all over her, hooked up to the mech with various tubes. The sight alone was devastating.

"Y-you're, n-not supposed t-to be here!" she wailed nervously, and started to approach him aggressively. Best Jeanist readied some thread, and shouted "Students! I need your assistance!". Daichi and Kuroi heard the shout, but as they turned around to assist him, their path was blocked off by purple flickering flames. Slowly, a teenager emerged from the flames, walking through them with seemingly no damage. The boy didn't seem that much older than the students, and walked towards them menacingly and silently, his arms wreathed in purple fire. Kuroi gritted his teeth. "Shit…We gotta deal with this guy first then.". He let out two tentacles, to keep some in reserve as a wild card. He then assumed a battle stance. Daichi transformed into a large mantis shrimp, and did the same. "We need to formulate a strategy. Any ideas?".

"No. We need to stall for now to think." Kuroi replied and Daichi nodded in agreement. Arguing wasn't going to get them past this one. The other guy didn't speak. He decided to test the boys by shooting flames from his arms at both of them. Kuroi used the tentacles as a spring and jumped upwards out of the way. Daichi turned into a small wasp and flew to the left, then transformed back into a mantis shrimp. From the air, Kuroi launched one of his tentacles at the aggressor. The aggressor deftly sidestepped to his left and in the same motion grabbed the tentacle with his left hand on fire. Kuroi winced as the tentacle was locally scorched, and yanked the tentacle back as he descended to the ground. Daichi lunged forward with confidence to close the distance. The menacing teenager shot fire from both hands at Daichi. His carapace heated up and started to crack almost immediately.

"His flames are stronger than Saiga's!" Daichi thought and ducked under the flame stream while reverting to human form. He couldn't rely on defensive tactics at all, which was not good as he relied heavily on baiting his opponents and punishing their resulting mistakes. He was only a few feet from the aggressor, and he deftly transformed into a giant bee, launching stinger first into the aggressor and piercing their arm when used to block the incoming attack. The aggressor wreathed his arm in purple flames, and Daichi's stinger broke off while he flew back. He winced at the pain, but it was alright. Bees were designed to break off their stingers. Unlike bees though, he wouldn't die as a result. However he could not use his bee form for a long while now.

Given the size of the giant bee, the pain from the stinger should have been exponentially increased, but the teenager didn't even flinch. He calmly grabbed the stinger with his left hand wreathed in flame, completely disintegrating it. He then pushed his same palm onto the wounded skin, and a faint hissing sound occurred with steam rising from the wound. When he removed his palm, only a red patch of skin was left, with no sign of injury past that.

"Oi oi….this guy is crazy!" Kuroi growled, and Daichi nodded in agreement while backing slowly towards his starting position in human form. "He can't be much older than us…what a strange villain" Daichi mused. Single attacks wouldn't cut it. They'd have to overwhelm him with teamwork.

"I know what you're thinking" Kuroi exclaimed, and Daichi smiled in response. "Like it or not, we'll have to bear with each other" Daichi sarcastically replied, and he started running towards the enemy, while Kuroi sent two tentacles on either side of Daichi towards the enemy. The enemy wreathed a desk near him in flames, then pulled his weight and the desk flew towards Daichi. One of Kuroi's tentacles quickly swatted it aside. "The bastard can use telekinesis? What is this Quirk?" Kuroi thought, impressed. The enemy then shot a flame stream at Daichi, but both of Kuroi's tentacles protected Daichi. They started scorching and Kuroi winced but bore the pain. As Daichi reached within melee range, the aggressor shot a fire stream at him but he slid under it, as this happened, the two tentacles reached the enemy and he quickly used both hands wreathed in fire to push them to the sides. At the same time, suddenly he saw Kuroi in the sky approaching him. Kuroi had hidden his other two tentacles as a trump card, launching himself into the sky with spring action while the enemy's line of sight was blocked with everything else happening.

One approaching from above, one from below, Daichi aimed a jumping punch in Mantis shrimp form with extreme speed. The enemy almost dodged but part of the attack grazed his chin and drew blood. At the same time, Kuroi descended from above with his arms wreathed in his tentacles for added impact. The enemy couldn't move in this position, he was already off balance. Suddenly the enemy wreathed his entire body in flame and uttered a guttural growl, right as Kuroi was landing his attack. The enemy was hit by one punch, but Kuroi's tentacles started melting. He screamed in pain, springing off of the enemy back a few metres. Daichi was only near the flames, but his carapace started overheating again and he also backed off to where Kuroi had landed. The man was wreathed in flames completely, in the form of a phoenix. He seemed even stronger than before. The boys were already tiring out after this brief skirmish which had lasted no more than three minutes. They were at a great disadvantage.

Meanwhile, Best Jeanist was evading attacks from the woman in the Mech. She had propulsion thrusters attached to her suit and she was zipping around the cluttered room, breaking everything. Jeanist was swinging around using fibres as grapple threads, while also laying various tripwires around the floor. Every time she tripped on one, she fell and wailed in agony. Best Jeanist quickly and deftly tied fibre around the mech's legs, causing them to buckle and the woman to collapse.

"You don't seem like a fighter…who are you?" Best Jeanist enquired calmly, and approaching her.

"G-GET, AWAY FROM MEEEEE!" the woman screamed and suddenly a bright flash of light emanated from her suit. Jeanist's eyes widened and he used a wire he had set up previously to bungee jump away from her with a high velocity. A miniature explosion occurred, which set her free from her bindings. The light from the blast was blinding and Jeanist couldn't help but look away. About 10 seconds later, the area came to view, and the woman was long gone.

"How the hell did she escape in a big mech!?" he mused, but there were more pressing matters. "Students! Where are you, please respond!" he called out loud.

Back in the other room, the older teenager slowly turned around and walked back through the flames outside of the room. Jeanist ran into the main area and saw the kid. "You! What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, which the enemy ignored and kept walking towards the entrance. Jeanist launched fibres as the enemy but his phoenix flame cover just disintegrated them at touch. The enemy ran away quickly. Jeanist wanted to pursue but the interns were his first priority.

"You kids alright?" he spoke with concern heading into the other room. "My tentacles are melting" Kuroi winced in pain. Daichi was less harmed but still visibly shaken. They were no match for the enemy.

"If that fight had progressed, we may not have left here alive." Daichi spoke shakily.

Best Jeanist looked at them with pity. "You did well. Let's get you both to a safe place." Daichi nodded while Kuroi just struggled to not yell in pain. One thing that was sure was this wasn't the work of Dabi. Either the League of Villains had more expert Quirk Users, or this was another organisation. Either way…

"We have a lot to discuss." Best Jeanist spoke seriously. The internship was heating up.