Sasaki Kendo

"Bam…"

"Yeong-ju."

"Acting like I can pronounce that."

"Ha." Bam watches the fireworks with me. Thought she'd be happier. Well, look happier. Starlight, practically her daughter, was dancing away on stage a while ago. That isn't enough to make this old lady smile? Busan changed her, yet you can't take the pep outta an idol. "Why did I want to talk to you? I mean no offense, but whenever I look at you, I get reminded of that day."

"Don't be. It's a better reaction than most people," I joke. "Trust me. When babies see me, they scream in terror. Might be 'cuz I'm an ugly, old bastard, but eh."

"C'mon, you're a delicate cheese that gets better over time," she snaps back with her own wit. "Really though, I think I wanted to recall old times and see how good I have it now. I still remember when Hamin was a chubby baby crawling on my lap."

"How did you get them under your care anyway? Didn't they have relatives they could've stayed with?"

"They did. Lasted for a month before Haneul asked me to be her mentor. At that point, they might as well live with me. Better for their relatives, who didn't have the financial stability to ensure that they have comfortable lives; better for them, who'd get the attention they needed. I might be their auntie, but they're my kids."

"Heh, I adopted a new grandchild. Not really 'adopt', but y'know, I took him in. As stupid as that boy is, he's a good fit in our family."

"I've read articles about Sanji," Bam says, moving the conversation along. Got sympathetic eyes in her. Doesn't have to tell me what's in those articles to know the shit they write. "It's a horrible thing, having the so-called beacons of truth that the media paint themselves as simply just...point their sights at your loved ones. I've personally witnessed them ruining the careers of people I know, good people. Some of them vanished off of the face of the earth, some ended their lives."

Always an awful thing. I've seen that happen myself to a few Heroes I know. The media's ruthless. "Ironic that we got a massive villain 'round us, yet we can't do shit 'bout it. Don't fret 'bout my kids though. They're fine. They got a good support system and enough redundancy that no one spiteful enough will actually hurt 'em. Sanji's plenty occupied with more important shit."

Bam sighs, looking towards the concert where Haneul is performing now, singing her heart out. "I hope so. In this line of work, you can't help but worry, y'know? To this day, I'm worried sick whenever Haneul or Hamin go on patrol. They're stupidly strong, I know that, but a part of me is still stuck in Busan."

I glance 'round, almost like I expect Toshi to make a guest appearance in our conversation, or Sora, or maybe Nana, who dug herself outta the grave. I'm not stuck in Busan like Bam is; she's defined by that tragedy. Meanwhile, I'm stuck in another hell altogether. "I feel you. Don't think I'll ever escape All For One's shadow. That's the one thing, the one fucking thing, that I'm terrified of: him meeting my kids. When I bugged out, I had to come back in. I might hate it, but if there's a fighting chance that we take him and whoever successor he has cooked up out, then I gotta take it."

"You're braver than most," Bam muses, basking herself in the colorful LED lights surrounding us. "All For One really was the devil. That man he hired—can't remember his name now—could've ended our lives."

"If it wasn't for Mystic," I recall. I still remember him. Normally, I would forget other Pro Heroes I worked with in international collaborations. Mystic is a special case. Not 'cuz he's Japanese, but for obvious reasons. "Think he's doing well? He left the U.H.N. after Busan. Haven't heard a peep about him ever since."

Grandmaster's looking into him. Someone as strong as Mystic with potential ties to an old school Vigilante couldn't have gone unnoticed. Thanks to us keeping Hakan Aldemir's ass safe, we got a favor to turn in. I talked to Grandmaster the other day and he's whittling Hakan down. Apparently, Mystic's information is very top-secret.

"No idea, I honestly thought you would know something since he supposedly came back to Japan," Bam says. "But I don't blame you for not seeking him out. Though, I do have something interesting. You know 'bout Origin-types?"

"Yup, the only reason why Japan is in constant danger," I joke.

She explains, "When Hamin awakened to Psychokinesis after his fight with Admiral, I took him to David Shield in I-Island for a Quirk evaluation. I dunno what you Japanese have in your genes, but it's not normal for a teenager to have his power skyrocket him to literally the No.1 spot.

"There, we went through the usual stuff: checking if he has any screws loose other than his social anxiety. Nothing horrible, thank goodness. David Shield ruled out the possibility that Hamin has an Origin-type, filed that in his computer, but had to step out due to something about his daughter… Afterwards, I… Well..."

My eyes narrow. "Bam, why you clamming up? Since we first met, I pegged you as a mischievous woman."

She awkwardly laughs, breaking eye contact with me. "I accidentally took a peek at his monitor and saw a list of individuals who had an Origin-type. All Might was there, so was All For One, a few names in Europe, one in China, and… I saw Mystic on there too."

"What?" Mystic had an Origin-type? Hell, that explained why his Quirk was absurdly strong, but shouldn't have Nana and Qinglong sensed it? Or maybe were they shushed into secrecy 'cuz of how the U.H.N. operates things? "You're telling me that Mystic had an Origin-type too? Did you get anything other than his codename?"

Bam shakes her head. "Just his codename. Mystic was what they named his Quirk too. Why you ask? Is it something important?"

"Kinda, yeah. A friend of mine, in on the secret before you ask, he's taking a look into any leads we have in order to get any kind of information on All For One. Since Mystic has an Origin-type…" I sigh, rubbing my mouth. "...It means his ancestor from way back when must've been involved. Thanks Bam, this could be really damn useful."

Hell, that explains why Grandmaster's having trouble. Someone with an Origin-type Quirk, you'd want it a secret. That's why the general populace doesn't know it exists. The thought of having anyone with that sort of power is terrifying, 'specially in the hands of an asshole.

"Well, looks like my accidental snooping paid off!" she cheers with an annoying laugh, nudging me with her shoulder. "How 'bout we do something else other than brood on depressing topics? Oh, I know! Where's your daughter? I wanna get to know her."

"Hayami's tough, got that from me and her mother. You sure you can handle a conversation with her? She might bite your head off."

"Saki, stop lying. She seems wonderful!" Bam crosses her arms, disappointed in my answer. Well shit, Hayami wanted some time to herself and not sure if Bam would take that as an excuse. Besides, I wanna check up on her too.

I rub the back of my neck. "If you say so. She might be a lil' grumpy."

Nodding, Bam sticks close to my side. Don't know if she's being friendly or flirty, but who cares? I don't have the energy to deal with it. "While we walk, mind telling some exciting stories? I wanna know what you've been up to all this time."

We start roaming around, looking for my daughter. "It's nothing too exciting. I'm old, retired, and ready to pass out in a grave."

"Aw, it can't be that boring! A Hero's life is always filled with excitement!"

"Unfortunately."

"You know, you're a real stick in the mud."

"I'm old, retired, and ready to pass out in a grave."

"...What did your wife see in you anyway?"

"Oh, shut up."

Sanji Inochi

"Oi! Inochi, Midoriya, we need to talk to you. Eraserhead, wanna get them briefed first?"

"Sure. Master Kendo and All Might might've told you already, but the Commission is sending two of their own: Edgeshot and a doctor by the name of Kei Shirabe. They didn't disclose their motives, but you can logically deduce that you're it.""We figured that they'll pull you two away to do who-knows-what. Whatever they do, be on guard. The Commission might pay our paychecks, but they sure as hell don't have your best interests at heart. As far as me and Eraserhead are concerned, they're just as shady as the Villains we're up against."

"However, that doesn't mean you can assault them or do anything illegal—more than you already have, looking at you in particular, Midoriya. They are still operatives of the Hero Public Safety Commission. Though you may have special privileges for being vested interests, they can easily give special punishments instead. Be smart and logical. You can afford to be argumentative, not reckless.

"For you, Inochi, it's logical to assume that they'll be attempting to induce a Quirk Awakening. That's why you especially have to be alert. Though this may be summer camp, this is an entirely different playing field for you and Midoriya."

"Agreed. You might be put through hell, kiddo. Thankfully, we talked to the Pussycats beforehand. They're siding with 'us' so-to-speak. You can trust them. Doesn't mean they can pull one over Edgeshot. He'll prolly have something hidden up his sleeve, or sweet-talk his way into getting the shit he wants."

"Vlad King and I will do our best to ensure that they won't overstep their place; however, the Commission gave us strict orders to not interfere. Normally, we could disregard that order if it wasn't for Edgeshot. As much as we detest the situation, if we try anything, we could be fired and forcibly replaced by a teacher sent by the Commission—that's the exact threat they used when I challenged them.

"Not to mention your classmates: we have a responsibility to watch over them as well. Their training is just as essential as yours. Whatever you will go through will be more rigorous, and considering the lesson plan we have in place, we have valid reservations that you could potentially be put in danger. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, Mister Aizawa. I got it. If something goes horribly wrong, I can scream. Hopefully, the forest isn't so dense that it drowns my voice out."

"Inochi… Anyway, I understand. Can I ask you something before we go? Why can't we trust the Commission? They're one of the pillars that support heroism altogether."

"...Midoriya, did you forget what happened at the warehouse? You were right there with the President, the face of the entire Commission, who gave me a tongue-lashing."

"I didn't. I didn't forget about her, Inochi. But why? Aren't we, as Heroes, supposed to trust them to do the right thing?"

"Normally, yes. However, they aren't working for your benefit, only Japan's, just as we said. Midoriya, the Commission isn't as squeaky clean as All Might. I'm an Underground Hero, so I have more than a few anecdotes to support my claim."

"Still, I want to believe they also have my interests at heart, Inochi's too. All Might fought to preserve this peace, didn't he? I like to think the Commission took after him in a good way. They want to protect this country as much as we do."

"...I would like to agree, but I don't have that much faith in authority figures outside my inner circle. We're just walking Origin-types, No.1's even. We're unmolded clay, and I'd rather be my own potter."

"We can trust them to help shape us, right? Can't we, Inochi?"

"I—"

"—Back on topic. Vlad King, want to say anything else? They got the handle of the situation, albeit brief."

"Well, wish it wasn't so brief in the first place. We know what'll happen with your classmates. We planned each day with the Pussycats. Just that, we have no idea what the Commission has in store. Their plan and our plan might intersect at a few points, or they will jump into the deep end, we don't know. Whatever happens, keep your chin up, got it?""Yessir.""Alright, Mister Kan."

"Vlad King, you can take Inochi back to your bus. Midoriya, let's go."

...Jeez. Edgeshot and this Kei Shirabe. I can't trust even the top Heroes in the country with my well-being. The Commission, I can't trust them with my life. No matter what Midoriya says, they're the sort of people who take without giving anything back. What the President said back at the warehouse, those harsh, almost fanatic words, of course I'd be distrustful of their motives.

Only the President would treat me like I'm Quirkless while objectifying me as a shiny sword to hack at the baddies. I don't know why Midoriya has an innocent view after he witnessed what happened to me himself, but it means that I oughta keep a close eye on him when camp starts, however it starts. Most likely, we'll have a different beginning than our friends.

Too bad Mister Kan and Aizawa didn't tell us how camp will begin. We're sitting in the dark until it happens, whenever it does. Knowing U.A., it'll start sooner than we expect.

Ugh, this makes me nervous thinking about it.

Should probably talk to Itsuka about this. Too bad I'm at the back of the bus with Kosei next to me—Yosetsu and Sen at the other end of the aisle. They're talking about something random, so I got time to sneak in a few text messages. Peeking over the seat, she's definitely free to chat. She's over at the front of the bus with Setsuna and the other girls.

Me: "Hey, miss you"

Itsuka: "Hey goof what's up?"

Me: "You saw me and Midoriya having a chat with Kan and Aizawa right?"

Itsuka: "Yeah, Mister Kan updated me on the situation"

Itsuka: "Edgeshot and this Shirabe character, huh?"

Itsuka: "Was gonna text you myself but you beat me to it"

Me: "Heh"

Me: "I'm kinda scared of what they have in store. Aizawa old me they might to put me in very stressful situations to force my quirk to come out"

Me: "You probably won't be there to help"

I sigh, leaning my head against the window to my left. Glancing over my phone, my friends are preoccupied with each other. No interruptions just yet.

Itsuka: "Those motherfuckers"

Itsuka: "Wish I could do more but they'll pull something, I know it"

Itsuka: "What about the Pussycats? Can't they do anything?"

Me: "They have to watch your and 1-A, remember? They don't have the manpower to watch two kids compared to forty"

Itsuka: "What about Mister Kan? Or Mister Aizawa?"

Me: "Commission ordered them to turn the other way. Now that I'm thinking about it, the Pussycats may be under the same order"

Itsuka: "Can't they just ignore it?"

Me: "Edgeshot, Shirabe"

Me: "Their eyes and ears are owned by them"

Itsuka: "Assholes"

Itsuka: "Do you even wanna awaken your quirk?"

…Do I? What Yoru said to me back at I-Island worries me. I have a mental block that prevents Quirk use; hypothetically, if that's gone, then whatever that was sealed away would come flooding back in. I'd need to prepare for the consequences, yet thinking about it… I feel so terrified that I wanna forget everything and live in ignorance.

A deep, gutting fear rises in my stomach. I just wanna cut that away, tear it outta my intestines and wish it would leave, never come back for as long as I live. I want to use my Quirk, but knowing this…

Me: "It's complicated"

Me: "If anything, I wanna do it myself"

Me: "I wanna choose the time and place"

Itsuka: "I'd wanna choose too. Like hell, it isn't their decision to force an awakening outta you"

Itsuka: "I can't imagine the emotions involved"

Itsuka: "Ugh, I'm getting angry"

Itsuka: "What do I even say? Or do?"

Me: "No idea"

Me: "Maybe just"

Me: "Check up on Mister Kan and the Pussycats? Make sure they're constantly updating you?"

Itsuka: "I'll do that"

So this situation is crappy… Mister Kan and Aizawa are explicitly ordered by the Commission to stay back; even if they wanted to help us, what about our classmates? It's not that they're untrustworthy, but what happens in the event they get seriously hurt and they're not present? Or the Pussycats who're just as likely to be barred from helping? It pains me to admit it, but we're not their top priority. Our friends are just as important as we are.

They'll do everything they can on their end, but the red tape is drawn wherever Edgeshot sees fit. Worst part: they have no idea if they cross the line until he tells them. There's a deliberate lack of communication here, and that's terrifying.

It's up to me and Midoriya to mentally prepare.

Itsuka: "Midoriya's coming too right?"

Me: "Yeah"

Itsuka: "Protect his back, protect yours, do everything you can to make it back in one piece"

Itsuka: "I don't wanna kiss a corpse"

Me: "I'll do my best"

Itsuka: "You'd better"

Itsuka: "I love you, dummy"

It's very effective at dealing damage to my heart. I look over the seats in front of me and I see Itsuka blowing a kiss. That's also very effective! In return, I give her a wink. Her lips curl into an amative smirk, and that's when Kosei grabs me by the shoulder and pushes me down into my seat.

"Pretty boy bastard…" he mutters. "Acting like you're better than us because you got a girlfriend. Ever since the fireworks festival, you look too smug for your own good. Y'think you're a hotshot 'cause you're not a virgin anymore, huh Sanji?"

...Okay, I didn't expect that kind of hostility. I'll just shut off my phone and put it away before he sees what me and Itsuka have been texting each other. "I was just on my phone! Where did this come from?!"

Sen speaks up, "He's been grumpy ever since I got Neito, Headband here has his eyes on Shojo, and you have our class rep. Out of us four, he has no one. No one at all."

Yosetsu nods. "Poor Airhead… Loveless and forever a virgin."

"Shut up! You're lucky I'm not nearly as pissed at you guys! Sanji here, he irritates me the most!" exclaims Kosei, reaching over to my seat and grabbing me by the collar. "D'ya think no one saw Itsuka grab you by the wrist and whisk you away upstairs the other day, huh?! We all know what happened!"

"...Which time?"

Kosei goes silent. I glance behind him. Yosetsu's viciously shaking his head while Sen sighs, facepalming like I said something incredibly stupid.

I think I said something incredibly stupid.

With me, helplessly held by the collar, it feels like forever until Kosei becomes operational again, blood boiling his face red. "Sanji, I'm gonna—!"

—THUMP!

Sen throws an empty water bottle at Kosei's head. "Sit down. You're gonna sit down, else his girlfriend might give you brain trauma."

Though the brain trauma received from the water bottle was minimal, it convinces Kosei to sit down in his seat with his arms crossed, fuming to himself. I would try to comfort him a little, but I'm sure I'm the last person he wants to talk to. Unlike him, I have a girlfriend and I'm, ahem, not a virgin.

"Right… Sen, Yosetsu, do I really act like I'm better than you guys recently?" I ask, receiving an annoyed huff from Kosei like the answer's obvious.

Yosetsu says, "A hella lot more chipper, dude. Not like Bakugo going 'Go to hell, extras!' or 'I'll fuckin' kill you, bastards!', sometimes 'Y'don't get to say shit, losers!'." Won't lie, his impression of Bakugo is good. Not perfect, but it's unexpectedly decent.

"Been wearing a smile more, laughing louder, wanting to help out around the dorms more than usual, yeah. Just more 'chipper'. Kosei's acting delusional," Sen adds, affirming what I hoped.

"Heh, good. I didn't wanna get punched by one of you guys again, especially Rin." I lay back in my chair, taking quick peeks at my phone to see if Itsuka texted me or not—the answer is nope. "Anyway, Yosetsu… You and Shojo, what's going on?"

"What's going on? Whaddya mean?" Yosetsu replies, confused by my question.

"'Whaddya mean'? You and Shojo went out; since then, neither of you made a single peep. Nothing. Not a hint of development or anything! What the heck is going on? I asked Manga the other day. Despite how much he spies on you two, he knows nothing."

Yosetsu's eyes widen, his lips straightening from the awkward place I put him in. He turns towards Sen for some help, but he shrugs his shoulders. "Uh, that's 'cuz we haven't really...talked 'bout it, y'know? It was fun, yeah, just that, uh, we didn't call it a 'date'. She prolly thinks it's a fun hangout and that's all it is."

"Do you know that for sure?" I prod. "You could try asking Setsuna; she's bloodthirsty for romance so she would've asked her already."

"Yeah, Sanji. She's bloodthirsty." Yosetsu eyes Setsuna at the front of the bus, sucking in some air like he's terrified of her. "Y'think I wanna talk to a shark like her? Tryna suck every bit of info outta me? No way, I gotta have a partner to back me up whenever I need something from her."

"She isn't that bad!"

"You've known her for a year! You're used to her!"

"Regardless! You haven't answered my question." I only noticed now that Kosei has earbuds in. Poor Kosei, can't stand to listen to us bickering about relationships.

Yosetsu mumbles something under his breath, sinking into his seat. "...No. Not like I can go up n'ask her. It'll be hella embarrassing."

"Embarrassment is worth it if you like her enough," I say. I have enough experience in communication; after all, I have Itsuka, don't I? "And you like her a lot, don'tcha?"

"...Yeah, I guess. How the hell did you do it, Sanji?" asks Yosetsu, ashamed. I can imagine. A guy like him would feel his pride cracking. Though Shojo is a kind girl, there's always that looming fear that she misunderstood the date they had, making their relationship—well, friendship—awkward.

Simply put, I answer, "Communication, that's the word, alright? Talk things out when you need to and make sure to get stuff straight. For you, it's not so clear-cut. It's stupid to go up and ask her, 'Heya Shojo, was that a date or what?' We know how Shojo is when it comes to confrontations like that. It'll only end in disaster.

"So if I was in your shoes, I would ask her out again and see how she takes it—better another chance at knowing rather than blowing it completely, I'd say. After the summer camp, I mean. Not now. We can't turn back the bus."

He laughs, sounding like he's laughing at himself for missing something simple. Rubbing his forehead, his headband falls down just barely covering his eyes. After lifting it back up, he says, "I can freaking try, I'll tell you that. Thanks dude, actually good advice. Sen here would push me to bare my heart out, and Kosei's a clueless idiot who woulda told me to say some stupid crap."

Kosei clicks his tongue. "Just 'cause I have earbuds on, doesn't mean I can't hear you, jackass! You wanna get punched in your jewels?"

Yosetsu mocks him, clicking his tongue back. "I'd punch yours first—oh wait, you don't got any!"

"Oh, you mother—" Kosei stops himself from finishing that sentence. He contemplates something in his head before coming to a final conclusion. Without turning to me, he says, "Hold my earbuds, Sanji."

Kosei drops them into my hands. He also drops his fists onto Yosetsu the aisle over, jumping on him and Sen who's uncomfortably pressed against the window. As much as he tries to push them off, he can't. They're wrestling. He's stuck. They're fighting. He's trapped.

An elbow's thrown in there, a really good elbow actually. A few hammer fists, Yosetsu's trying to leverage Kosei off using his knees, they're definitely brawling alright. The commotion gets the attention of almost everyone on the bus. Though, we're not a normal class. The majority look the other way and brush it off nothing more as "boys being boys", or in the mind of Itsuka who's coming down the aisle, "idiots being idiots".

Itsuka grabs the seats between her, alternating between the fight—Sen's given up at this point—and me—I'm casually watching this. Her neck goes slack. She groans. "...Sanji, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm the earbud holder. That's my job." I hold Kosei's earbuds up to present the evidence. She isn't amused in the slightest.

"Earbud holder, what the hell—Actually, I shouldn't be surprised. Gimme a second." Itsuka grabs Kosei, who's on top of Yosetsu still, by the shoulders and pulls him off with superior strength. He yelps, having control slipping from his body and nearly ramming his stomach into the metal outer rail of his bus seat. Luckily, he manages to kick himself over to avoid his guts spilling out; unfortunately, that results in his head bonking against the inner armrest and almost hitting my right arm.

"Ow…" mutters Kosei, stars spinning above his head.

Itsuka reprimands, "Save the sparring for the camp, you two. And Sanji, try to help me out a lil', please? You're lucky we're not on a bumpy road, else we'd be rocking 'round like we're on a boat."

I put Kosei's earbuds in his ears. "I wanted to see you again, Itsuka."

Itsuka sighs, not having the capability to get angry at me. There's a sublime smile hidden inside though. "Dork… I'm going back to my seat."

"Love you," I say before she leaves. All I get is a tongue sticking out of her mouth. Cute. My girlfriend's cute. It's adorable how frustrated she was, and despite that, she literally can't get angry with me. Oh, she looks cute in her school uniform too! Sure, all of us are wearing the same uniform but she makes it work. Almost tempted to dirty it.

Hehe, I should get her to bother us again. How should I do that? Without genuinely making her annoyed? Kosei and Yosetsu are out of commission, Sen too, most likely… Texting is always an option, but nothing beats seeing her with my God-given eyes. Gazing into her soft features, my mind running with past memories, some of them more intimate than others...

"Hehe—"

—THUMP!

"Ow?!" A water bottle hits me in the head. It's Sen. He threw it at me. "Why did you throw a water bottle at me?! And didn't you already throw one at Kosei?! Where did you get another—?!"

—THUMP!

This time, he threw an empty soda can. "Seriously?! Explain to me why I'm getting pelted by my own friends!"

Yosetsu, with a few scratches on his face, says, "You were sitting there giggling… It was kinda creepy…"

"Creepy? What? A guy isn't supposed to think about how cute his girlfriend looks?" I grumble.

Sen slowly pulls out another water bottle. This time, it's unopened, completely full. "He's in his honeymoon phase. I oughta put him outta his misery."

Kosei hears what Sen says and sits up. "Lemme do it. I wanna be the one who ends this pretty boy bastard. Got a better couple picked out for him already: my hands, his neck."

"Your hands, your pockets, please…" I return his suggestion. What did I do to receive the animosity of my best friends?! All of them are looking at me like I'm walking garbage! What kind of a crappy situation is this?!

"Ready to die, Sanji?" Kosei asks, taking off his tie. Oh God, I think he's gonna use it as a garrote.

"I pass." I slide myself as far back as I can go, my back hitting the cold steel wall of the bus.

"Oh yeah, you'll pass alright."

...Crap.

Bsssh!

An hour into the bus drive, we arrive at a rest stop. It's roughly 9:40AM. Surprised we stopped so early. It's only a few hours drive; we're patient enough to sit through it all without needing to stretch our legs too much. Either way, we're getting called to hop off and move around a little. We shamble our way out—Kosei's glaring daggers into the back of my head—and step into the sunlight.

At the door, Vlad King has a bag out, telling us to put our phones inside. We do just that, walking out onto the overbearing sun already turning our skin into crisps. Jeez, it's almost ten and the sun's killing us.

We're parked just off of a cliff's edge, overlooking the massive forest swathing acres upon acres of land, nothing but trees stretching beyond the horizon. Faintly, I see the gray training camp facilities in the distance, just a few dots in a canvas painted green. When I step out, Itsuka's waiting beside the bus.

"Y'know, I'd look forward to camp more if I wasn't so pissed at the Commission," she says as we let our friends gather behind the iron railing at the edge of the cliff. Mister Kan's hanging back with us.

"I'll be fine, don't worry. Edgeshot won't try to do anything crazy. He took it upon himself to babysit two of the most powerful fighters in the country. Even he has to be wary," I assure her. Earns me a sweet smile that I adore so much.

"God, I hope he doesn't do anything shifty," Mister Kan joins our conversation. "Haven't talked to him myself, but heard rumors that he's wired different. Don't know how exactly. Just that—"

—THUD!

"What the hell is that?!" yells Juzo as something jumps on top of the bus.

A mature woman with brown hair and red eyes strikes a pose, her exaggerated cat-theme gloves raised to the side with a single leg lifted, the foot just below the other leg's knee. Her outfit is...maid-ish? Not quite sure that's the right word, but it's close enough. The brunette's wearing a red and white blouse outlined in a dull gold, complemented with a red skirt and red knee-high boots, furred at the edges.

"Merrr-ow, that's no way to react to a feisty kitty!" she exclaims from above.

"Perfectly cute cat-like girls at that! Have some manners!" follows her blonde-haired partner with an identical outfit, just blue instead of red. She pushes her visor firmly on her nose, sticking her arms out.

Together, they shout, "Rock on with these sparkling gazes! We've come to lend a paw and help! Coming out of nowhere… Stingingly cute and cat-like! Wild, Wild, Pussycats!"

Mandalay and Pixie-Bob.

Something tells me this isn't exactly the time to rest. Nope, nothing like the sudden appearance of the Heroes who will train us will jumpstart our lessons. They're just here to make sure we use the bathrooms correctly, put the toilet seat down, normal toiletry manners.

"Wonder why two middle-aged cat ladies hopped on the bus like a trampoline," Togaru remarks, earning a few snickers and laughs from the others. Pony frowns, tugging on his tie angrily but not actually doing anything to bother him.

Pixie-Bob suddenly jumps off and clenches his shoulders with her kitty paws. "Hey kid, you misunderstood something alright! I'm not middle-aged! I'm eighteen pure and true!"

"You're eighteen, season twelve," Juzo mutters.

"Season one!" shouts Pixie-Bob. "I'm eighteen, season one and that's a fact!"

Tetsutetsu, with a pumped-up fist shooting into the air, reassures her, "Mama always told me that the first season of any show is the best and it all goes downhill from there! But don't worry, Pixie-Bob, I'm sure all twelve seasons are just as good as the first!"

"Every season is me at my youthful best! Wait, I'm still at season one! Don't try to confuse me, kid!" She pounces on Tetsu, trying to convince him that she's not, to the contrary of what most people think, a Christmas cake.

Mandalay hops down from the bus, standing in front of me, Itsuka, and Vlad King. She turns around and gives us a cute wave with her cat hands. "Vlad King, you got a rambunctious batch this year, don't ya? You oughta teach them some manners alongside whatever you got planned. They're terrorizing Pixie-Bob."

We check up on how she's doing. Setsuna's going off about something: "Mandalay's thirty-one, so is Ragdoll and Tiger, but you're only thirty! It's a mature age that many men would—"

She slams her paw against Setsuna's mouth. Unfortunately, she underestimates her gusto. Setsuna's head falls right off and floats high in the air, completely unreachable. "Little girl, get down here! You don't understand what it's like to be an old hag!"

"...I'm proud of my students," Vlad King muses.

"I can tell," Mandalay says with a soft and warm smile, her eyes turning to me specifically. "You must be Sanji Inochi. I'm informed of your, well, rather unique situation. Mind staying near the bus?"

...Yeah, that confirms it. Camp's starting now.

I nod. Beside me, worry flashes across Itsuka's face. She got the memo too. "Mandalay, promise me that you'll do everything you can for him?"

Her eyes shimmer, and that's enough for Mandalay to stop to think. Taking in her expression, the genuine look of concern, she nods, making direct eye contact as if it's a promise. "Mhm. Feel free to talk to me or any of the other Pussycats. You can trust us, but for now, join the rest of your class. I'm sure you know what's happening."

Itsuka kisses my cheek. "If you get hurt, I'm punching you then Edgeshot."

I smile and laugh. "You'd better make good on that." I watch her join our friends with Pixie-Bob bouncing from person-to-person, getting them to verbally admit that she is, contrasting from public opinion, eighteen.

Mandalay skips over to me and Mister Kan, bouncing in her boots. "How long have you two been together, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's…" I chuckle, rubbing the back of my head. "...It's complicated. Technically, since the Eiyukawa Fireworks Festival. Realistically, we've been inseparable for a while now."

"Amazing!" Mandalay claps with her two paws. It's like slapping two pillows together. "It's always sweet to see couples! You don't see that very often in this line of work, you know! Pixie hates it. Here's the thing, Inochi: You need to do your best to make her happy. Girls have a lot of needs, so don't dismiss them. Else, we can be your worst nightmare."

To emphasize her point, she raises her hands, the metal claws glimmering in the sunlight. Scary. I don't wanna know the previous relationships she's been in. "Yes ma'am…"

A drip of sweat trickles down Mister Kan's head. "Are you really giving relationship advice to my student right now?"

"This is training camp!" says Mandalay. "There's nothing stopping me from teaching your pupils the whims of the heart."

"Hey Sanji!" cries Yosetsu from afar. "Aren't you gonna join us or something?"

I shrug my shoulders, turning to Mandalay with a smirk. She takes that as a cue to get the ball rolling. "Sorry, he won't be joining you! You might've figured it out already, but this will be one long bathroom break! Get your claws sharpened, because this'll be a memory you won't ever furrr-get!"

"Oh shrooms, I knew U.A. would pull a fast one!" Kinoko squeals, the first one trying to run towards the bus. "This is mush too scary—!"

"—Not so fast, shroom girl!" Pixie-Bob stops her with her intimidating stature, a sadistic grin curling on her lips, her eyes engulfed in a wild, red flame. "Training camp is starting now! Here's season one of pain, you brats!"

Pixie-Bob slams her paws onto the ground. A cloud of dirt erupts from the point of contact, swirling around all twenty of my friends like an inescapable whirlpool. Almost reminds me of Juzo's mud. It's strong enough that none of them, not even Setsuna, could escape. The tidal wave sweeps them towards the railing. Some scream at me for help. Can't do anything but watch them topple over the edge and plummet down to the forest floor, their pleas growing distant until they're snuffed out altogether.

"...Was there a better way of doing that?!" I shout at Pixie-Bob.

She shakes her head, cracking her knuckles. "Gives me the most joy! Besides, you heard your friends misunderstanding basically everything about me! They deserved it! Speaking of which, how old do you think I am?!"

Mandalay whispers, "Pick the right answer."

"Eighteen," I say.

Pixie-Bob's eyes narrow. "What season?"

"Pilot episode."

"Heh, you got that right, didn't ya! Mandalay, maybe the next generation isn't so hopeless after all! Hahaha!" Pixie-Bob laughs towards the open sky.

Mandalay sighs, having a hand at her hip. Wind breezes through, our clothes and dangling accessories gently swaying wherever it beckons. Jeez, my heart's starting to race. Seeing my friends go over the cliff isn't exactly the most calming sight, but hopefully, this is a calculated decision that wouldn't result in serious injury or death.

In a moment though, I'm isolated. That's the Commission's intention from the beginning, isn't it? Isolate me from my friends, narrowing my attention to whatever they have in store and only that. Goodness…

"Anyway, we need to make a move-on to Section C. Let's head back to the cars, Pixie." Mandalay says before she whistles. Two black cars with blacked-out windows pull up onto the road, just in front of the bus. "Inochi, you're coming with me to the front car. Pixie, Vlad King, you're the back."

"Yes ma'am."
"Got it."

I take the passenger side door on the right while Mandalay takes the driver's. Going inside…

"Inochi?"
"Ugh, another Hero-wannabe? Don't tell me I'm gonna be sandwiched between 'em. Worst kind of sandwich..."

Midoriya's on the other side with a lost child in the middle. Not gonna lie, he has the face of a bitter old man.

"Mandalay," I call out as I sit down, "why is there a bitter old man cosplaying as a little boy here?"

"That's…" She shakes her head, not answering my question just yet. Pushing a button on the dashboard, the car drives itself to a predetermined destination, probably Section C as I heard before. "...He's my nephew, Kota Izumi. I'm watching over him during camp."

"Kota Izumi, huh?" I turn towards him. He's a small guy, spiky black hair with a red hat, two golden horns sticking out the front. Has intense, angry eyes though. The same exact look Togaru has whenever he's annoyed with me. "Nice to meet you, Kota. Name's Sanji—"

WHAM!

He elbows me in the gut, taking the wind outta me surprisingly enough! "Don't wanna talk to idiots like you. Don't bother me."

"Inochi?!" cries Midoriya. "Kota, why did you elbow him—?!"

—BAM!

Kota punches Midoriya in the groin. We're both bent over, defeated by a five-year old… "I told you, I don't wanna talk."

"Ugh…" I groan. "Mandalay, your nephew's lethal!"

"Kota, no fighting in the car!" she scolds, shaking her head and sighing. "Maybe it was a better idea to leave you with Vlad King and Eraserhead. Either way, we should start the debriefing. We have around seven minutes until we reach Section C."

Mandalay pushes another button. It brings up a blue electronic screen on the dashboard, visible to everyone inside. The center says [CALLING…] for a few seconds until it picks up. There, we see Pixie-Bob in the front with Mister Kan and Aizawa in the back.

"Inochi, Midoriya," Mister Aizawa addresses us, somehow looking more tired than the last time I saw him. "We already gave you the talk before we left, but to remind you: the Commission is bringing Edgeshot and Doctor Shirabe as your personal trainers."

Pixie-Bob nods. "Yeah, as much as we Pussycats don't like our territory being stomped on, our claws are dulled when it comes to the top guns. We're taking you to Section C. 1-A was dumped at Section A, and 1-B at Section B as you saw before. Mandalay, mind pulling up the map?"

"Here you go." With her phone, Mandalay partitions the upper right-hand corner of the screen with the map of the forest. It's cut into thirds, going from A to C from right to left. A massive blue dot is at the top end of the map. "Your peers are fighting through The Beast's Forest. You'll be doing exactly the same thing as your peers, only with each other as back-up. That's what Edgeshot requested. There's a catch though…"

On the map, a red dot appears roughly sixty percent into Section 3. "Your classmates have to reach the blue dot: our camp. We estimate that it'll take ten or eleven hours from beginning to end, but they aren't on a time constraint. For you, your objective is to reach the red dot within four hours."

Mandalay lowers her head as if ashamed. "There's one massive mystery about this training exercise that we should tell you… Pixie-Bob uses her Quirk to create Earth Beasts that she can control remotely over a great distance. Originally, both classes would be fighting them on their way to camp."

The map shrinks, shoved into the left half of the screen while various pictures of monsters are shown on the right. They take the shape of dinosaurs, dragons, there's even a pterodactyl. Must be the Earth Beasts that she was referring to.

"However," Mandalay continues, "you're not fighting Pixie's creations. Edgeshot said the Commission is supplying their own 'training dummies' for the exercise, and as much as we tried to research what exactly they are, we have zero information to give you. To give you my honest opinion, reaching the objective within four hours is impossible. I'll be amazed if you last one hour in the forest under the conditions given. I don't mean to undermine you or your training, but it's not possible. Almost brutal, even for U.A. standards. And this, this is without considering the caliber of enemies you'll have to face."

"Why doesn't he trust Pixie-Bob to administer our threats?" Midoriya asks.

"Because like what Mandalay said about Pixie's Quirk." Mister Kan taps his head, basically signaling Midoriya to think. "Pixie-Bob can control every Earth Beast; they're not sentient in any way. She's already hesitant with the Commission's overreach, so naturally, the OCD bastard that's Edgeshot doesn't trust her to give you 'proper training'."

"God…" I almost can't believe the lengths the Commission would go to test us. This is completely absurd. Not even our teachers know what's going on. None of us have a single clue what will happen in Section C. Any simulations I think up, I'm most likely underestimating the challenge by wide margins. Whatever I think of the worst, the absolute worst-case scenarios, my imagination is limited by the fervor the Commission, specifically Edgeshot, has. If it takes a class of Hero Students ten or eleven hours to traverse the entire length, how can me and Midoriya travel over half within four hours? With enemies of unknown specifications? I don't wanna sound self-deprecating, but I'm still Quirkless. I literally need a weapon to be effective.

I'm sure Midoriya can do a great effort by himself despite the obstacles. His Quirk is genuinely one of the best in the world. Me though? Quirkless? No sword? I'm more of a hindrance than a reliable partner.

Our best chance is to either hope we can sneak our way to the objective, or we rocket there until our legs give out.

"Mandalay," Midoriya speaks up, "we'll make sure to live up to the Commission's standards. We've gotten this far, so surely we can do it. I think it's possible despite the unknown variables we have."

A child-like sheen washes over Midoriya, shining with bravery. Y'know, as much as I think I'm a cheery guy, the logic's there, mocking us. It's good to be confident, but Midoriya's balancing the line too much.

I wonder… Ever since our spar at I-Island, has he thought about what I said? How I criticized him for having idle thoughts about this occupation? His words from earlier, about the talk we had with Mister Kan and Aizawa before we left school, doesn't give me much hope.

"No wonder why All Might favors you so much," Mister Aizawa comments through the call, "you have his blinding optimism. Moving on, do you have any questions before we arrive at Section C?"

I nod. "A few, actually. Why are we talking about this when we have an elementary schooler here? Shouldn't we maintain some level of secrecy?"

Mister Aizawa answers, "It's information that we won't miss if it does get accidentally leaked. Though, Mandalay assures us that Kota will keep quiet."

Kota responds by punching me in the side of the arm. "Like I care what happens to you, especially the broccoli-haired guy. All of this is worthless anyway."

"Don't say that, Kota…" Mandalay shakes her head in defeat. Wow, wonder what made Kota so bitter? A kid his age shouldn't be such a pessimist, a misanthrope even. As much as I wanna find out, don't think that's my business to pry. I understanding having not-so-pleasant experiences. I'd be upset if a stranger tries to stick their nose into it.

"Right... I'm assuming I won't have something to swing during this," I ask, moving onto the next topic. Kota huffs. He tips his hat over to cover his eyes, disengaged in the conversation at hand.

"As much as we wanted to, Edgeshot went outta his way to forbade us from giving you anything. A meticulous bastard, he is…" Mister Kan scratches his cheek. "...Would've done it, but he'll be watching you. Can't risk putting our positions in jeopardy with that watchdog lying around."

"Dammit…" I bump my head against the soft cushions behind me. "So to recap: Edgeshot and Doctor Shirabe are absent, watching over Section C somewhere—we don't know. Within Section C, there's something, multiple somethings to be exact, brought by the Commission within the forest—we don't know. Our mission is to reach the red dot within four hours—we haven't addressed the dot, but I'm assuming we also don't know what'll be there."

The adults in the car nod. There's too many things we don't know. Like I said, intentional miscommunication. That makes me angry.

"All this to test us…" Midoriya mutters. "Does All Might know? And Master Kendo? What do they think about this?"

Mister Kan replies, "They hate it, whaddya expect? They're praying for your safety. Trust us: we did as much digging as we could but we only had plastic spoons as shovels. This is the best we got. The rest is up to you."

"Looks like me and Midoriya will have to fight together for the rest of the day," I observe, my eyes drawn to the map of The Beast's Forest. "One last thing: Tell me more about Doctor Shirabe. We know enough about Edgeshot that, uh, his resolve is a mountain, so any dirt we uncover is worthless. Was wondering if it's a good idea to sway her."

A picture of Doctor Shirabe is shown on the screen, down at the bottom-left corner. She's a middle-aged woman with black hair, green highlights running throughout. Mister Aizawa details, "Good thinking, I was about to introduce her. Kei Shirabe, received a Ph.D in metaology at Tokyo University. A few years later, she was employed by the Hero Public Safety Commission as a 'researcher' at a scientific center under the bureaucracy—the Hero Science Institution. Her research is virtually unknown, however. What Vlad King said about digging with plastic spoons is more true than you think.

"Though, given that she's Edgeshot's company, she's well-embedded in the secret affairs of the country. All Might, for all he's worth, doubled back on rumors he heard about a project that's spearheaded by the Commission."

Two words appear underneath Doctor Shirabe's portrait: [PROJECT SAGE]

"There's no information about this 'Project Sage', yet we have valid logic to assume that Kei Shirabe is the head researcher given the project's secrecy, or at the minimum, has an involved role."

Project Sage… If, or when, I talk to her, it'll be good to keep that information at the back of my head. Hope she's better than Edgeshot. All I heard about him thus far are nothing but negatives, for a good reason too.

"Is that everything?" I ask, peering out the window. We're almost at the same "rest stop" I was at earlier.

"Yup. Any last minute questions for the good of the group?" Mandalay checks. I shake my head, Midoriya too. "Alright, we're at Section C. Kota, stay here."

Everyone but Kota walks out onto the same cliff edge, overlooking the swaths of trees, an eternity below us. Me and Midoriya are closest to the railing while our teachers stand near the paved road.

"This is where we go our separate ways," Mister Aizawa starts, pulling his scarf down to reveal his full face. "We have the other kids to monitor. Play the exercise smart. Though your mental strength increased, your Quirk strength increased marginally. That was the exact purpose of this training camp: to train your Quirks. Now, you'll be tested in every category."

"You'll be on your own." Mister Kan crosses his arms. Worry is sincere in his eyes, but resentment is stronger. "We won't be able to help you; your friends won't be able to help either. You only have each other."

"The exercise is impossible to complete, that's what I think." Mandalay takes quick glances at the black car, keeping an eye on Kota. "But it doesn't mean you should give up. Do your best; already, you're more courageous than most of the students I've seen before."

"That's right! Even though all of you are brats who can't tell age." Pixie-Bob dramatically huffs. "You have a responsibility to come back better than ever, so make sure you end up at camp, alright? We'll be waiting for you with hot plates of curry!"

I nod, looking towards our next battleground. Anticipating the upcoming fights head, I loosen the red tie around my neck. I take it off and let the wind carry it away. "Understood, loud and clear. If this is what we have to deal with for the first day, don't tell me what happens tomorrow."

"Whatever tomorrow will bring, we'll make sure to see it!" Midoriya cheers. Then, he looks at Mandalay. "And Mandalay, if I can, think I can eat curry with Kota sometime?"

"Well, he's not a great conversationalist, but you can certainly try." Mandalay warmly smiles before Pixie-Bob steps forward.

"Alright, are you two ready? I'll be gentler with you," Pixie-Bob asks. I lurch over the railing. The rock surface is surprisingly smoother than I thought. The incline isn't a straight wall either. Maybe I can…

"Yeah! Midoriya, Pixie-Bob, follow my lead!" With no reservations, I vault over the railing, my feet planted firmly on the surface.

Midoriya follows behind me, exclaiming, "Don't do that so suddenly, Inochi!"

"Are you two brats suicidal or something?!" Pixie-Bob yells right as the earth wraps around our legs, overtaking everything up to halfway to our knees in a brown muck. Our velocity down the cliff increases, us sliding down towards The Beast's Forest in a downwards, but controlled, trajectory.

I lean myself to the left, acting like a snowboarder on a snowy hill. I look up and see Pixie-Bob angrily shouting at us with Mandalay trying to pull her back from the edge.

"Ha…" I manage to crack a laugh. Yeah, I gotta stay positive. Just stay positive even when the situation is dire.

As my hair runs wild in the violent gust, The Beast's Forest approaches us faster and faster, the individual green leaves soon taking form. Midoriya's just behind me, concentrated on our descent as I am.

"Midoriya!" I shout.

"Yeah?!"

"Let's do this!"

At the Mobile Research Center…

"Confirmed, the boys are descending into Section C," Kei Shirabe says, watching live video footage caught by a drone. Sanji Inochi and Izuku Midoriya are seen traversing down the cliffedge with the use of Pixie-Bob's Quirk acting as a mudslide—their destination: The Beast's Forest.

"The Genkei Mushas are already stationed throughout Section C, so no need to worry. The only major cause for concern lies within the two Heroes," Edgeshot states, his eyes glued to a screen with various screens containing a variety of data: the locations of the Genkei Mushas, the data they are constantly sending to their operators, the map of The Beast's Forest, and more. Kei spots how obsessively Edgeshot's eyes dart from screen to screen, analyzing the information second-by-second.

The two officers are tucked away in an isolated open space within the forest, tucked inside a mobile research center that's roughly the size of a large RV. It's a tight space, as a majority of the open area is occupied with large research equipment and storage compartments containing smaller equipment or materials. Along the walls are monitors broadcasting various sorts of information, almost too much for even the likes of Kei or Edgeshot to fully wrap their heads around.

Kei leans back in her rolly chair, pushing off the floor with her feet. It moves a few inches before its seat hits the steel handle of a gray cabinet behind her. She says, with her voice lined with irritation, "Edgeshot."

"Will your statement contribute to the current training exercise for the two Heroes?" he coldly replies, attention still towards the monitors.

"Yes, actually. When will Inochi and Midoriya—"

"—Armory and Deku," he corrects.

"Armory and Deku," Kei mocks before returning to her previous train of thought, "when will they encounter the 1st GM Squad?"

"Estimated time of encounter…" Edgeshot reads off the screen. "Approximately five minutes and thirty-six seconds. Counting."

"Good, we finally have a chance to talk." Kei swivels around to face him, yet he actively refuses to return the favor. "Are you planning to run these kids to the brink?"

Edgeshot sighs, already frustrated with her tone. "They are not 'kids' or the 'boys' you sometimes refer to them as. They are Pro Heroes."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I will test them. If they run themselves 'to the brink', so be it."

"You gave them four hours to reach the objective," Kei says, gesturing towards a screen containing the map of Section C. "You deployed the Genkei Mushas, something that the R&D department has been perfecting for almost a decade as a side note, that are literally meant contend with large-scale threats at a moment's notice."

"The R&D department will be pleased with the data we will send them. Three hundred trials should give them plenty to work with," he dismisses.

"That's not the point, stop intentionally misunderstanding me. They are weapons specifically made in case a large number of the country's populace turns rogue. And you turned off all of their limiters. They will see those boys as a threat they should kill. Thank goodness you had an ounce of common sense to substitute live ammunition for rubber. Doesn't mean the GMs will be any less dangerous."

"Once again, they are not 'boys', they are Pro Heroes. I don't understand why you have these reservations. To properly mold those unrefined slag into proper blades for the country is exactly my mission. Yours is to evaluate their Quirks. As far as I'm concerned, you are overstepping your boundaries."

"You're overstepping their rights as human beings. It's impossible that they can reach their destination in four hours with a battalion of GMs aiming to parade their heads. And that's just the first part of the first day."

"They are Pro Heroes—"

"—They are just kids—"

"—They are the country's next hope!" Edgeshot raises his voice, echoing against the steel walls of the center. He stands from his chair, striking daggers into Kei with looks alone. "It's nonsensical that you continuously implore me for 'mercy' and continuously bring up their age as if that will make a difference! They are Heroes first, everything comes after! I expect nothing but perfection from the two of them, possessing Origin-type Quirks, the rarest in existence!

"Izuku Midoriya, the holder of One For All, the one who All Might entrusted! He has the hallmarks of everything a Pro Hero ought to be, the next formation of the greatest Hero of all time! Then, the complete and utter senseless enigma that's Sanji Inochi who refuses to give information for the good of the whole, selfishly keeping everything to himself! Who remains Quirkless before you say, contributing nothing but aspirations distanced impossibly away from our grasp!"

Kei stands as well, blood boiling inside her veins. She clenches her fist, yet having the sense in her anger that assaulting him would do nothing. "What you're doing will result in nothing but pain! You're treating them nothing but fancy toys! I know especially that you're planning to give Inochi a personal hell to awaken his Quirk!"

"A Hero worth his salt ought to weather it regardless! You should keep your objections to yourself and remain in your own realm, and especially remain in your own vapid ignorance! Should I remind you that you are benefitting the most? The President took pity on you and your daughter!"

"Don't you dare bring Chie into this! I never asked for her presence! To involve her and tell me that I should act like it's a blessing to silence me?! I—"

"—Your ungratefulness will further contribute to your isolation if you finish that sentence! You are aware that the President listens to my suggestions, so I very well can use her to keep you docile! So please, sit down and speak nothing further about this! If you attempt to help the Heroes in any shape, way, or form, I will ensure that reality."

"You son of a—!"

A monitor flashes red.

The 1st GM Squad has encountered Sanji Inochi and Izuku Midoriya.

Sanji Inochi

THUD THUD!

"Anything broken, Midoriya?" I help Midoriya onto his feet, his bright red shoes half-covered in brown.

"N-Nope, just dirty, heh…" he replies, dusting himself off. We're at The Beast's Forest. What can I say? There is…! Trees. Yeah, a forest has trees. I don't know how else to describe it. Tree to my left, tree to my right, tree ahead, tree farther ahead, trees everywhere. It'll be a struggle to navigate through.

Nodding to each other, we start to head towards our objective in a brisk walk, pushing through impediments like heavy bushes. Least the trees are close enough together to block the sun. While we walk, Midoriya asks, "What do you think the Commission brought?"

"Frankly, dunno. My guess? Something machine," I theorize. "They wanna keep this under a microscope, so having real people fight us is outta the question. But it's an entirely different question if said machines are like the robots we fought at U.A. or the stuff you see in mecha animes."

"...Right." Midoriya searches our surroundings for anything suspicious, nothing so far judging from his reaction, or lack thereof. "I can't stop thinking about Kota, Inochi."

"Mandalay's nephew…" I mutter. "He's a fighter, alright. Took us both down. You met him first, didn't you? Since 1-A probably got dropped off before 1-B did."

He nods. "Yeah, I tried talking to him but he didn't say much. I even made a joke about how the color of my shoes and his hat matched. He, uh, poked my eye with the horns on his hat…"

"Ouch… It's clear that he doesn't like Heroes or the idea of heroism in general. For a boy as young as he is, it's almost impossible that he developed that resentment naturally."

"It's…" Midoriya stops. He looks down at his open hand before clutching it. "...sad. Whatever happened, I want to reverse it. No one, especially someone in elementary school, should hate heroism. It's the single-most greatest thing brought to this world, don't you think?"

I open my mouth, but words don't come out. I was about to instinctively agree, yet the image of Itsuka flashes across my mind. Then, a mild headache decides to greet me. I restrain myself from visibly wincing from the pain. "...Yeah, guess so. Determined to help Kota, aren't ya?"

"Aren't you?" he turns the question around on me. "I know whatever Kota experienced hurt him, hurt him a lot, and it's his own business… But it's a Hero's job to meddle and help heal his wounds, to give him a smile. There's no reason to be reserved."

"I mean, personally, I think there is a good reason." To my left, a bush rustles. I turn but it's just a squirrel. Scared me a little. "Kota must've gone through something horrible to act that way. To heal him for the sake of loving Heroes might just hurt him more."

"I don't necessarily believe that, Inochi." Midoriya quickens his pace, walking right beside me. "Loving Heroes is an amazing way to help you. I can't see how attempting to encourage that will deepen the wound."

"Do it recklessly, you'd basically be jamming a knife to fix a surface-level cut. It could be...insensitive to say, 'Life got you down? Just adore Heroes and your problems will go away!' Heroes will make you smile, I completely agree with that, but the problems are still there."

"I just… I just don't think it's insensitive. It's exactly what you need when you have fallen over and can't get up. Your problems, if you just have faith in them, the Heroes I mean, then it might as well disappear. Believing in Heroes got me where I am! Especially All Might! Because I believed in him so much, he became my teacher! What about you, Inochi? Didn't Heroes help you?"

Solemnly, I nod. "Mhm, definitely. I'm not slandering them of anything, Midoriya. They really gave me what I needed when I was at my lowest. Not all Heroes could do that, y'know… The only one charismatic enough is—"

"—All Might," we say in unison.

"Yeah, All Might. He was my inspiration just like you," I continue, moving on from that synchronized moment, "when the world hated me, hated me every waking moment of my life, he gave me a reason to live. 'Why not give my life to others?' I thought to myself, 'My pride won't let me be useless.' So I did that. I trained to be a Hero."

"Didn't heroism help you to become a better person? The same person I'm talking to right now, Inochi? Why can't heroism help Kota like how it helped you? It did so much good for you—I'm assuming at least—I'm confused why you would say otherwise." Midoriya stops. I take a few steps forward then turn around to face him, hands in my pockets.

I think back to All Might, to everyone I've met, to Itsuka, to my ancestor—Yoru—to everyone who's important in my life… "Heroism can't help you; it can only save you. What happens afterwards, it's just you. I've only realized recently, after I came back from I-Island actually, that All Might is nothing more than an excuse. I think that's what makes him great. He embodies the reason to be better.

"Might sound selfish of me to say, but I used him—and heroism—to become a greater version of myself."

"How can All Might be an 'excuse'—!"

—RUSTLE RUSTLE!

"Inochi, get down!"

I drop to my knees as Midoriya leaps forward, his right leg extended. He flies over me right while something really weird lunges at me with a blade poised for my neck. However, he's faster.

FULL COWL: SHOOT STYLE - 5 PERCENT!

His shin connects with the assailant's head. The kick finishes with a strong sweeping wind clearing away the bushes, sweeping leaves off of branches. Whatever attacked me is launched back with its head almost completely decapitated, only a few colored wires remaining connected with the rest of its body.

Midoriya lands in front of me, his veins glowing with power. "Inochi, heroism made you a greater version of yourself, right?! Then, I'd love to see it!"

"Roger! I—!" Shit, I see figures on top of branches! There's not only melee combatants, but ranged ones too! "—I'm gonna show it after we get behind a tree!"

I grab Midoriya by the collar and drag us behind a tree before gunshots ring out—three, precisely. Bullets bounce off of the dirt, picking up small clouds of dust. Definitely rubber bullets, still scary nonetheless!

"They have guns?!" Midoriya exclaims. "Inochi—!"

"—They're up in the trees, Midoriya! I don't have the mobility nor the speed like you do to take them out, so they're your responsibility! Trust me with the ones on the ground!"

"Got it!" He literally jumps away, using trees as his playground. I hear the sound of metal crunching. I'm envious. I—!

"—Enemy located."

"—Enemy located."

Two of them appear. One front, one back. Now I got a closer look… They're androids; not even that, automatons. They have extremely pale "skin", resembling more like traditional Japanese dolls than actual humans. Lines run throughout their face and body, partitioning their parts across its limbs and chassis, alternating between the pale white and a dull orange. Their height is around mine, just a centimeter or two taller. And their eyes? It's not even that. They're completely black with a strangely terrifying white dot in the middle, moving around with uncanny precision.

These are the machines I'm up against.

THWISH THWISH!

"—Cooperative attack failed."

"—Cooperative attack failed."

Before I get hit with whatever they have, I roll out of the way. Having a better look, their arms have transformed into gleaming double-edged blades, roughly twenty inches. It's shorter than a katana. Their limbs themselves… I'd reckon they're about the size of the typical Japanese man. Being made from metal and plastic, the intricate wiring that goes on underneath, they must be pretty light compared to us flesh-and-bones, even with the weaponry they have in store.

Ugh, should oughta mention how they talk. Whoever engineered this tried giving them human-like voices—emphasis on the "like", not the "human". It's like listening to an animal trying to speak like us with gargled words.

When I stand up, they systematically turn. Once their eyes set upon me, the white dots shrink.

"Engaging, left."
"Engaging, right."

They charge together, about to close the distance in a couple of seconds. The robot on my left has its blades ready to slash me in the side of the neck and chest. The right one mirrors its actions. I see… What they're saying isn't the entire story. They must be wirelessly communicating information by the nanosecond; it's impossible to explain their coordination otherwise.

I dash forward to gain the speed needed to slide underneath their attacks, hopefully working against their predictions they computed. As I slide, I grab the ankle of the robot on my right, dragging them down face-first into the dirt.

"Vulnerable position," it states. I place a foot on its, uh, where its butt would be (it doesn't have one). With a firm grasp on its leg, I twist and pull it right out of its socket, the wiring torn length-wise. Just as I thought. They don't weigh much, and they need to move like a predator. They're fragile.

The other robot cuts around to face me, but it's too slow. Before it has the opportunity to strike, I twirl around and bring the amputated leg into its head. It crashes into its skull and falls over, head caved in with its wires sparkling like firecrackers. "D-D-D-DaMage SUStaiNed..."

My feet are planted into the one-leg machine's back. Before it tries anything funny, I stomp its metal head in until it's motionless and the metal is bits. Quickly, I finish the other one off the same way.

Then, the bushes whisper. "Engaging."

SWISH SLASH SWISH!

A new arrival practically manifests in front of me, swinging its right blade towards my neck. I duck underneath; it spins and follows up with a diagonal slash towards my chest with its left; I swiftly evade to one of its blind spots behind it; it suddenly flips over me and tries to cut my back with both of the arms; I roll forward, pivoting on my feet to face it.

Still managed to hang onto the leg; unfortunately, that little exchange brought enough time for two more pairs of legs as back up. Shouldn't be too big of a challenge!

I throw the leg at the forward-most robot, sprinting right afterwards. It sees the limb coming, blocking its optical sensors or whatever it uses to see. Effortlessly, it brings its left blade up and through the leg, bisecting it. By the time the action took place, I'm already there. "Target—!"

—I lock its left arm underneath my armpit and grab the droid by the neck. Using the immobile arm, I use it to pull its entire body downwards while pushing my hand against its chin. Whatever material comprises it, it's weak. The "skin" tears first, and once it does, it becomes easier to yank its head to break the last tethers: the wires. One down.

The next charges forth with the last one trailing behind by at least a second. I drop the carcass and toss the head at the nearest bot. They headbutt, but they're both knocked over—difference is: at least one of them is still "alive". Me and the one standing meet up in the middle. I let it cut at me once (and miss) for it to open its defenses. Once that happens, I step in and grab the head with both hands, jamming my thumbs into its eyes.

I feel the slippery orbs—imitation eyes—cracking before becoming crushed under the weight. It tries to push me off in vain; to end its misery, I snap its neck a complete one-eighty. It's enough that it goes limp in my hands, deactivated.

The final android, robot, whatever the Commission calls them, picks itself off the ground. It's having trouble because they don't have hands to plant themselves up, but rather, literal swords. I find a sizable rock at my feet, about the size of my palm.

Take it, throw it, hit it.

CRACK!

The rock collides with its skull, opening a large hole from the impact. Falling down again, the cavity emits electrical sparks, giving me a glimpse of its inner mechanisms. That's before I treat it like two of its friends: crush its head before it starts moving.

"Is that it…?" I mutter to myself. I survey the area. No rustling, no pattering of metallic feet, only the sound of leaves falling on my shoulder. Midoriya must be occupied still. The close combat guys must be dead, so that only leaves the ranged combatants. Whenever he's finished, I got something important to do.

I crouch down on the last poor soul I killed, or well, dispatched to put it nicely. I grab the right arm, firmly grasping the shoulder and…!

CRRRRK!

"...Inochi?!" Oh, there's Midoriya!

"What's up?" I wave. Not with my arm though, heh, definitely not with my arm.

"Why are you ripping its arm out?!" he exclaims, eyes twice as big as they were before. He skutters back like I'm gonna disarm him too—literally.

I hold the sword-arm. I said the blade is about twenty inches while the arm is around ten to twelve, give or take. Honestly, it won't be too difficult to swing around. The sword-part goes from the elbow down so the "handle" won't bend by the joints. The blade itself is razor sharp too, but it looks like it's been laser cut from a metal sheet. Despite the cheap methods, it'll be good for a few fights before I have to get a new arm.

"To use against its friends, of course. By the way, where's the ones you fought? I wanna check something with them too." I keep my new sword with me, letting Midoriya lead me.

"Are you planning to salvage their guns?" asks Midoriya.

"I hope. I'm assuming the Commission packed them with automatic firearms, so it'll be incredibly useful to nab them. My main worry is whether or not we can manually trigger them; it depends on how the engineers developed the guns in conjunction with the robots."

We reach the corpses that Midoriya made, five in total. There are holes or missing parts in each of them; gaping chests, broken arms or legs, even one of its heads is half-torn. I lift up a random arm, inspecting it. There's a hole in the palm of its hand. I hesitate. Awful idea looking down the barrel of a gun, but it's deactivated… Right? To make sure, I crush the head with a nearby rock before looking down the barrel. Has rifling. Yup, this is the barrel alright.

"Inochi," Midoriya begins, slightly unnerved by my brutality, "check the back of the neck. I thought I saw something weird."

I do exactly that. There's a small indenture there. Pulling on it reveals a smaller hole that goes into the robot's neck and down its back. The diameter is only a few centimeters… Actually, I might know what this is used for.

I rip the back open.

"Why do you keep tearing them apart?!" Midoriya exclaims.

"This, actually." I show the exposed back to Midoriya. Underneath is black framing with tons of wires flowing throughout like veins and blood vessels. However, just underneath all that junk are brass casings with black bumps at the tip: rubber bullets. There are two tracks, one going to each arm. "This is how the Commission 'reloads' them. Their backs are essentially one massive magazine. We can't use their guns unless you wanna carry a horrifying imitation of a human on your shoulder"

Midoriya sighs, scratching the back of his neck. "That's a shame, I guess? I, uh, never used a gun myself, but you sound like you have."

"Yeah, at I-Island. Most recently, anyway. Sometimes, don't tell anyone, but Hayami uses me as a convenient way to test her guns," I tell him.

"...Is that legal?"

"Is making self-operating machines equipped with internal, automatic firearms and bladed weapons ethical?"

"...Right. Hold on a second, there's something engraved in one of the metal frameworks. Could be a name." Midoriya bends down and points at it. "Genkei Mushas… The name's on the nose, don't you think?"

It is, but it makes sense. "Genkei" roughly translates to "prototype" with these characters: 原型, and "musha" translates into "warrior" with: 武者. That's the name of the androids: Genkei Mushas, or Prototype Warriors. They're definitely prototypes alright. Fragile casing and moments of hesitation—or computing lags—costed them their digital lives. Deadly, though. Incredibly deadly. They weren't holding back during our fight. Normal people don't stand a chance against them.

Maybe…

"Why do you think the Commission made them?" ponders Midoriya. I stand, staring down at the bodies with melancholy. There's no OLED light in their dark eyes. "For the police? But the Genkei Mushas can use deadly force so effortlessly… I can't imagine a threat where Heroes wouldn't be enough, or they wouldn't be suitable. If they're used against a large threat…"

"Maybe that's exactly it," I think out loud. "They're made to fight against large numbers as a miniature army."

I don't wanna say that the Commission made them to use against the average, everyday folk of Japan. That's too cruel, even for them. The Meta Liberation Army is a minority of the population, so it doesn't make sense that they create weapons that explicitly fight against their own people. At best, they're used to complement a military force. Or the police.

Midoriya turns to me. "Like the Meta Liberation Army?"

"Like the Meta Liberation Army. Not everyone has Quirks like us, y'know. Better to delegate expendable forces to fight non-important threats." I shake my head. "Anyway, let's start moving. We should look out for a water source too. We'll die of exhaustion before the GMs kill us."

"Right!" Midoriya picks up his head, a flash of insight in his eyes, beaming with confidence. "Oh, we should also share information from our fights! Do you want to go first?"

"Sure." We walk deeper into the forest, leaving the broken GMs behind us. "First of all…"

We found ourselves at a small pond, having fresh, clean water to drink from. For the past hour, we walked and fought a few more groups of Genkei Mushas. The first ever group we fought, we counted six melee GMs and four ranged GMs. The second had a five-three split with no injuries on our side; the third contained six purely ranged—and annoying—GMs; lastly, the fourth, five minutes later actually, was back-up with five melee GMs.

In total… Sixteen melee GMs and thirteen ranged GMs for the grand count of twenty-nine. There wasn't any major losses sustained on our side, only exhaustion. Our biggest threat is the sun more than the robots themselves. As the minutes ticked by, we felt the temperature rising by the degree. The pond is a godsend frankly. An hour passed and I already feel tired.

I don't have a mental map of The Beast's Forest completely memorized, but by a rough guess-imation, I'd say we're over ten percent of the way there.

Yeah, ten percent. It took an hour to realize that this place is a lot bigger than we thought; not only that, we had to navigate through tough foliage. Our arms and legs have countless scratches on them; ironically, they did more to us than the GMs.

Midoriya dunks his head in the pond, cooling his body off. He washes the sweat and dirt off of his face, his green, fluffy hair soaked and patted. "Ah, I needed that…"

I'm sitting a few meters away under a tree. Has shade. "Careful, Midoriya. A GM might pop outta the pond and chomp on you like a crocodile."

"Heh… I hope not." He slides his hands through his hair, flicking the wet strands off his eyes. "Can I ask you something? About, uh, what you said earlier?

I raise my head. "About crocodiles? I've heard Florida has a ton of them, but uhm, I'm pretty sure we have crocodiles here too."

"Not crocodiles, no!" He shakes his head. "At the beginning of the exercise, I mean. I was thinking about it… What kind of life did you have before All Might? Did you admire Heroes before him?"

I sniffle, rubbing my mouth. I open my mouth to reply, then mentally scratch what I was going to say, shutting it. Instead of looking at Midoriya directly, my attention's diverted to the blades of grass at my feet, the soles of my shoes stained with green and brown. "No."

"No?" asks Midoriya. I can't see him, but I bet he looks confused. I answered with a single word, completely unlike me. It's like a switch flipped. "You didn't look up to any Heroes? That isn't All Might? What about Crimson Riot or Yoroi Musha? Maybe you looked up to old Vigilantes like The Winter Samurai?"

I tilt my head, rubbing my neck. "Ah, nope. Crimson Riot, Yoroi Musha, didn't have their trading cards. The Winter Samurai? We share a few similarities but he was never a thought inside this big head of mine. I didn't bother with heroism until All Might."

"Why?" he asks again. "That's...so strange, Inochi. Everyone growing up would be exposed to Heroes. On TV, it was impossible to not smile when you see them fighting gallantly as ever. Even now, each time I see live coverage of a popular Hero fighting, I can't help but stay and watch, quaking in anticipation."

I frown, my neck going limp, hand still firmly holding it. I pick up my knees, bringing them a little closer to my chest. "Yeah yeah, no… It was, yeah, it was hard for me. Of course it was, y'know? Surrounded by kids discovering their Quirks, showing it off, then looking at me who is, by definition, legally Quirkless… Wasn't the most positive experience, definitely—no, yeah, not the best! Don't forget middle school, where the brightest of the rugrats bragged about how they were gonna be the awesomest, coolest Heroes! Top Hundred, Top Ten, No.1, No.1 of the world, make it the universe. Surrounded by the constant ego-stroking, who could blame me for maybe thinking that heroism is the same way, where the same capes on TV are the same capes that sit next to me in class?"

"...You were bullied?" Midoriya asks as if that's a question in the first place. I don't answer; it should be obvious. It should be plenty obvious. "I'm...sorry. I didn't have the best experience in school either, but it's fine now. It's okay. Since I'm becoming a Pro Hero, something silly like that doesn't matter anymore."

I shut my eyes, resting my forehead in-between my knees. My arms sit on top. They hang off. "Doesn't matter anymore, huh…? How was your time in school, then? I've heard a thing here and there that you and Bakugo were childhood friends. Was he always like that?"

"Yeah, but like what?"

I pick my head up just enough to watch the grass sway. "Oh, I dunno. Abrasive. Rash. Always yelling. Always insulting us."

I can sense Midoriya frowning, almost boiling over to a direct scowl. "Don't talk about Kacchan like that. I appreciate you, Inochi, but I don't like what you're insinuating. Kacchan wants to be a Pro Hero more than any of us from the very beginning. He could be a genius too! Explosions, his Quirk, and his battle intellect, he can genuinely be one of the best Heroes that we have ever seen! And that only that, he's changing from the Kacchan I knew when we were little! He wants to win no matter what, and honestly, I'm motivated to win too!"

Kacchan Kacchan… A genius kid, a prodigy like Setsuna—she constantly calls herself that. I'm not gonna doubt it; Bakugo is one of the best fighters in the first-years. What Midoriya said though, about him changing… God forbid, don't tell me what he was like before U.A.. Midoriya was bullied just like me, but since All Might gave him the Origin-type and Bakugo is turning out to be the prodigy of the century, everything is just alright.

Can he forget everything that happened? No, change that thought. Can he forgive everything that happened? With Bakugo's current personality, there's a high chance that he was one of Midoriya's bullies. I don't wanna assume what Bakugo did or the stuff he said, but I'm sure Midoriya couldn't brush things off so easily.

I don't say anything in response. Not to what Midoriya said.

"Inochi," Midoriya says after a few seconds, "despite our differences, I sincerely think we're pretty similar. We started off in a bad place, but thanks to All Might and the good fortune we have, we finally have what it takes to make our dreams come true. We can open our eyes and see it come to life!

"Do you know why All Might chose me? It's because I had the heart of a Pro Hero! He meant it! I saved Kacchan from a Villain, my body moved on its own like I was on autopilot! It was the instinct that he saw! Now, I'm doing my best to live up to his expectations! I'm unsure about myself everyday, but in spite of that, I want to assure All Might that choosing me wasn't a mistake!

"I don't know how All Might inspired you, but it was the greatest gift you had! You're becoming a Pro Hero like me; we're walking on the same path, and I'm glad I'm not alone! That's why I don't want to give up! Not even once! If I give up at all, how can I call myself a proper Hero? I can't look at All Might in the eye knowing I've failed! Everyone helped me so far, I'm grateful, but I need to—"

"—Midoriya," I interrupt. I pick my head up fully, laying it back against the tree. "I thought you wanted to know more about my childhood, not talk about yourself."

"I—"

"—My life was a little hard, y'know? My biological parents only left me their legacy inside my head. My older brother, I can't remember what he looked like or how warm his smile was. My Quirk is locked off, mentally sealed inside my head, the key nowhere to be found. At the beginning, I had no value, pumped into a system with the rest of the equally worthless. I bounced from home to home; a majority of the time, I wasn't treated right. At school, I was at the bottom of the hierarchy. If you're Quirkless, no one can blame you for being 'born like that'. Legally Quirkless, they call you 'disabled', 'crippled', 'special needs', throw in a few 'retarded'—they kick you to the ground because you weren't human like them in the first place.

"You have a mother who stayed with you since you were born, I had to find mine. You were lucky enough to meet All Might, feel validated and assured that maybe, just maybe, you had a purpose. I did my best to forget that part of my life. I wanted to seal every disgusting, vile memory up inside a vault, put ten locks on it, and pray that its contents would never spill out. 'Just pretend it doesn't exist,' I told myself, and I keep telling myself now.

"I've never gave any explicit details to Itsuka or the rest of my friends and family. They knew I was bullied, and maybe had a few unsavory guardians, never the nitty-gritty. It's not fair to them that I complain about how bad my life was when my life is so much better now. And every time I reflect on this, I don't wanna attribute my happiness to heroism. When I visualize happiness, all I see is the people I've met. Hearing you rant about your own life, I wanna shut you out. All I want is...

"All I want is to see my friends again. I wanna forget about the bad, focus on the good."

This is why I told Midoriya that preaching the virtues of heroism might not be the best way to help him. It might've worked for Midoriya himself, but it's not applicable to everyone. It can't be applied to me, and it can't be recklessly applied to Kota. It could push him deeper into his shell.

While Midoriya rambled about his own aspirations, I wanted him to be quiet. I didn't ask for him to pontificate about his own life. I wasn't sure what he was trying to do: inspire me, maybe? If so, that's a horrible way of doing it. Maybe I should've told him that he brought on bad memories.

Bad memories, yeah… I could kill to see Itsuka again.

Standing up, I stretch my arms and legs. Midoriya doesn't respond to my tirade. Really, we're just there, doing nothing but being two awkward teenagers alone in a forest. To break the ice, I say, "Let's start heading out. I'm not sure if the forest is really big or we're really slow, but we spent a quarter of our allotted time. We're about one-tenth of the way in, don't trust me on the exact numbers."

Midoriya blinks. "Wait, what?! That can't be right! We spent an hour just to get ten percent of the way there?! And we talked for who-knows-how-long?! What about our mission?! We can't fail!"

Okay, he's panicked. I should've expected this reaction. Mandalay literally told us that she thinks it's impossible while Midoriya thought otherwise. I shouldn't have told him. "Edgeshot made it ridiculous on purpose. He's most likely using it to gauge our personalities inside and outside of combat—"

"—But if he's testing us, then we can't fail! He's a Top Ten Hero and apart of the Commission! I was almost expelled for failing an exercise once! I can't lose this opportunity to be a Hero, Inochi! Just like All Might!"

What kind of exercise—? Actually wait, Mister Aizawa. He's his teacher, answered my own question. "We can afford to fail this one, don't worry! We need to take our time and not recklessly waste our energy! This is not a marathon, but a hike!"

"I'm sorry, but we're wasting an opportunity to win! I told you how Kacchan wants to win! If he was here, he would be blasting his way through the forest! This is exactly our moment, Inochi! We can't hold anything back!" says Midoriya. He has very concerning eyes right now! Dammit, why is he being so unreasonable?!

This isn't any ordinary exercise we get at U.A. because they would give us a shot at passing! In these circumstances, it'll take a miracle for us to make it there within three hours! We don't have our costumes, no equipment, we're hindered by our own endurance, and we have robot ninjas stalking us as we speak!

"We don't have anything to prove to Edgeshot! He's not worth our time proving ourselves too! Him and the Commission!" I reply, standing up. "We need to take our time to conserve our strength!"

"They're apart of our world, so of course we have to! We need them! Come on, Inochi, let's move!" Recklessly, Midoriya runs into the forest, in the general direction of the objective. I swear under my breath, quickly picking up my arm-sword and chasing after him.

"Don't run like that, dammit!" I shout at him, but there's at least a ten meter gap between us. Y'know what, I never should've told Midoriya that we're an hour into our trek! I assumed he changed his mind about this exercise being possible, but I was wrong! He's headstrong, I give him that! Just so headstrong that it's exactly like talking to a brick wall!

He continues to sprint ahead, the distance between us widening. I see a few green sparks emitting from his body. Great, he's using his Quirk too?! That's not fair at all! "Midoriya, you're leaving me behind!"

Once I shout that, he stops completely, letting his red shoes skid across the dirt. He smoothly slides around to me. "Inochi, we can't slow down, not even for a second! We lost too much time already!"

"Well…!" When we're in normal-talking range, I stop, heaving slightly. Abruptly going to a sprint isn't good for me. "...I'd rather lose time than get lost in this deathtrap! I'm still Quirkless, y'know! I wasn't the one All Might picked! Doesn't mean you get to do something as careless as this! Running into unknown territory with GMs planted around, that's suicide!"

"We can't argue about this now, Inochi! We can't idly talk while we're put against a time limit! All Might's counting on me to be his successor! This is what he wanted! This is what I want! We're strong enough to fight the GMs, so have the confidence to win! I—" Midoriya grinds his teeth.

Under his breath, he mutters, "—You probably can't understand anyway."

That's...exactly right. We're tied by common traits, something that I would definitely sympathize and draw parallels with, but there's no way I can understand him. To place hope in the Commission—when the heartless suits who see me as a weapon, to believe that this exercise is possible—when I can't trust the instructor to make it fair, to think that heroism is the ultimate panacea—when I had to work and train to get where I'm at today, I can't understand Midoriya.

I bet being All Might's successor is an amazing feeling, having all this attention on you and getting the chance to prove yourself that you are the next big thing… For me, I dunno. I never liked attention. Sacrificing so much too… All Might doesn't have a family to come home to, where you wake up every morning brewing a pot of coffee while you wait for your favorite people to come downstairs. Once their heads peek in, sleepy and groggy, you chat about mundane, unimportant things that would make any restless person mad. Sometimes, you even laugh at the terrible jokes they make; might be awful with no wit or humor involved, but because you love them, they're the best you heard in your life. The world's waiting outside your door, begging for you to step out, but the world can wait.

Does All Might have friends that he can confide in? Have relationships that doesn't involve heroism? Where you can theorize the ending to a thrilling arc in the latest anime you watched, help one of your friends cook with a fire extinguisher on hand, or learn about the various species of bugs that you had no idea existed? Having friends will be a chaotic time, they will give you gray hairs where you'll be eighty at twenty. Despite the countless near-death situations each hour, you can't get mad at them no matter how hard you try. At the end of the day, you're having fun, and that's worth the pain.

I know there isn't a Miss All Might in the world, only the Mister. The one person—the one woman—that can make you feel vulnerable without your pride ruined. Where she just gets you like no other, all your personality quirks, your oddball behavior, knowing exactly what makes you defenseless, the closest any two people can be. I'm not sure if All Might ever fancied someone that isn't the statue of a bygone Hero or a heroism law textbook detailing thousands of commandments, where his body is draped around that flowing, golden cape where the wind manages to always breeze in the right direction. While you, you on the other hand, are draped cozily in a blanket with your partner tucked in your arms. It's a blissful feeling to see her wake up, coming to life, and see you, her eyes lighting up once she realizes it's you. It's you: the two words that put everything into perspective.

Becoming All Might's successor is probably a great feeling if you're willing to sacrifice yourself, wholly selfless to the point of ruination. I'm not convinced. Not anymore. I'm not convinced anymore.

"Everyone wants me back safe, Midoriya." I find it within myself to respond. "I promised them that I would come back without a single scratch. Proving that I'm a Hero to people who won't give two flying craps about us? Yeah, right! I have better things to focus on. We walk, and we take our time, that's that."

"If we do this, then we can come back safe every single time we go out," he continues to argue. The posture of his body signals his steadfast resolve; firmly, he faces forward. "That's besides the point though. I'm going ahead, and as much as I want to slow down for you, you can't be a burden."

"A burden? Midoriya—!"

—He begins his sprint, channeling his Quirk to give him boosted speed. Goddammit… Without a choice, I chase after him. I disagree with Midoriya very much. Doesn't give me the right to abandon him.

I run after him, my sword-arm firmly held, through the trees. Out of the corner of my left eye, a silver flash runs like lightning.

THWAP!

"—Gah!" Midoriya's suddenly launched into the trunk of a massive tree wider than he is. I almost missed what happened. The flash on my left is a Genkei Musha. Out from the pores of its palms, two thick wires shot out with inhuman accuracy. They met Midoriya and wrapped around his wrists, reeling him into the tree back-first, arms painfully bent behind him and against the bole. He cries in pain, his attempts at escape hindered by the awkward position he's caught in.

"Midoriya?! I'll be right—!"

—THWAP!

"Ghrk!" A wire's shot around my neck from above. I'm hooked like a fish on bait, forcibly dragged up into the air, hitting smaller branches that stab and scrape at me. My sword almost falls out of my fingertips. I desperately hang on, eyes balancing upwards, watery. My vision's blurry, but I can barely see the white figure of a GM coldly staring down on top of a thick branch.

Desperately, I whack at the metal wire with my sword, clumsy doing so with little to show for it. I—!

—ZRRR!

"Fwah!" The GM pulls me closer by the neck. The sudden jerking of my body almost causes me to blackout from unconsciousness, air fleeing through my mouth. My sword falls, clattering against the offshoots before clinking at least ten meters down. There's no possible way for me to cut my way through. I don't wanna die by hanging!

GRAB!

Barely, I'm able to grab onto a sturdy enough branch with my right hand. With my remaining amount of strength, I grip onto the branch as much as I can while grabbing the wire with my left, wrapping it around my hand. With this, I should gain enough leverage to—!

—PULL!

I manage to pull the GM off of the branch. Unfortunately, it's where the wires came from. As the GM falls, I'm dragged down with it like I'm tied to a pile of rocks. Through the sharp twigs and dirty leaves, I land on my back less than a meter away from the still-kicking robot, the wires still firmly hugging my neck, loose enough where I can begin breathing normally again. The fall takes the wind outta me, pangs of pain flooding my nerves.

My sword is a small distance away. I dash to grab it, having enough slack in the wires to not stumble embarrassingly. Before the GM can react, I perform Isshin Jukaze: Fujin—a technique that allows me to shape wind into the arc of my sword swing—and cleave the GM into two, bisecting its body diagonally from the lower right hip and up.

The wires become lifeless, sliding off. I bet there's an unsightly red mark around my neck now. Just great. "Midoriya—!"

—Midoriya's still trapped by the GM who has him locked against a tree. It's walking itself back as if it actually wants to break his arms—won't be the first time it happens to Midoriya. However, he struggles back, pulling his upper body forward, his left foot planted on the tree, knee bent. With his Quirk giving him the extra strength needed, he manages to get his right foot on the trunk too.

"Grraaaah!" His veins glow red as he suddenly leaps forward as hard as he can, overwhelming the GM with power alone. The GM flies towards the tree Midoriya was trapped at, colliding head-first and eating a mouthful—if it had a mouth to begin with—of bark. It's not dead yet, and from the looks of Midoriya, who's kneeling on the ground gasping, he's not in a state to readily react!

"Here!" I shout, running towards him—almost tripping over myself from the harsh, awkward fall and the lack of air. I slam my sword against the wires, severing them. "You alright?! Let's find—!"

—WHAM!

"Inochi?!" A hard, blunt object cracks against the back of my left leg. I fall down immediately, turning around to see a GM with a metal baton as a hand. As I turn, I instinctively raise my sword to decapitate the robot. Its head falls, bouncing on the grass.

"I'm good!" I tell him, trying to stand on my left leg only to drop afterwards. "Never mind, not good!"

Midoriya steps in—!

—RATATATAT!

A hail of rubber bullets storm behind us. We both take at least a few into our backs, shoulders, legs, whatever's exposed. Crying in pain, Midoriya manages to grab me and throw us behind the nearest tree.

"This…!" I shout over the shooting, "...This is exactly why we should've taken our time!"

"We can't talk about this right now! Can you see the GM?!" Midoriya shouts with me. I peek over and see the GM firing—!

"—Midoriya, straight ahead!" Two GMs are running at us with bladed and blunt armaments, emphasis on the "arm". Without question, he engages with them.

While he does that, the annoying gun-robot is standing on a trunk about twenty meters down, sixty-degrees up in the air. Isshin Jukaze: Fujin isn't honed enough to go that far without dissipating; however, I've been cooking something up that will hopefully do the trick!

Stepping out in the midst of bullets, pain swelling in my legs, I raise my sword and swing with a greater intent on the upper half! "Yrrah!"

ISSHIN JUKAZE: CHIISAI FUJIN!

A variation of Fujin. Fujin takes the form of the entire length of the blade give or take a couple of inches. Accidentally while practicing, I made a smaller version that's weaker, but travels a longer distance without disappearing.

The Chiisai Fujin I created drifts towards the GM and slices half its neck open. The head tilts from the missing support with a goo spilling from its wound. Dazed, it falls backwards off the branch. No need to figure out what happened next.

I look back at Midoriya. "Midoriya, do you need—?!"

—CLANG!

Can't we have one moment without an interruption?! A GM appears outta nowhere to launch a surprise attack. I block it and slam my sword into its skull. I twist the handle-arm to split it open like a watermelon.

Kicking it away, another GM lunges into the fray with double batons. It swings high and I duck low, putting more stress on my legs. For this guy, I make it so that it doesn't have to worry about legs by cutting through its right just above the knee. This time, I had to exert a greater effort just to amputate it; the edge's getting dull.

I put the thought aside. The GM lets gravity take it. Once gravity does its job, I twirl the handle-slash-arm into the icepick position, piercing its forehead with the tip of the sword, going a few inches deep. To my left, two GMs grow from the bushes, both melee.

I throw another Fujin in an attempt to take them both out, yet they anticipate it. They avoid my attack without much trouble. Seeing I don't have the time to do it again, I throw my sword like a javelin at the one on my left. It pierces its upper chest. Since it doesn't feel pain, it tries to run like nothing happened. Needless to say, it falls, the blade going further into its body.

The right GM is still a threat, and I don't have a weapon anymore. To gain control, I step forward but feel my legs screaming at me. Running at the GM isn't an option unless I wanna faceplant and present myself to my maker. Instead, I stand by ground and let it come to me with its dual-blades. It introduces itself by doing a double attack where I deftly avoid both with cuts only to my shirt, not my skin. Lowering myself, I grapple it, wrapping my arms around its back to body slam it onto the ground.

On top, I find a good enough stick and jam it into its right eye. I push it as deep as I could, with as much strength as I could. Not enough. I do hammer fists with my left hand to pound its skull, and after the fifth or so punch, it's dead at the expense of damage to myself. My left wrist didn't like that.

Deep to my right, a GM flashes its palms.

RATATATAT!

I fall over and roll the dead GM's body on me. It takes the rubber bullets, but I can still feel the impact through it. Midoriya's finished with his brawl; I see at least four on the ground. "Midoriya, need some help!"

"Got it!" He quickly finds the GM and jumps over, punching it in the head. It takes a single punch for the GM to go down and never get back up again. Then, he scans the area for any enemies. A few seconds pass… Ten seconds… Nothing…

Groaning, my body relaxes. "How did we get outta that one? That was...really rough."

"We won. That's what matters," Midoriya says, giving me a hand up. I wince, a hand grabbing my left thigh. "Your leg…"

"I can still walk… Can't say the same thing about running. The baton and those bullets made for a terrible date." Without his support, I show him that I can walk at a passable level. I'm hindered but not so much that I'm useless.

Midoriya sighs, glancing around at the carnage we made. "They had batons too? And wires? Where did they get them? How come we never saw them before?"

"I think we underestimated the GMs…" I kick the nearest one with my right foot. "They're getting smarter. Dumb androids don't hang you by the neck or wrap your arms around a tree. They knew how to keep pressure on us, constantly engaging without a break in sight. I mean, they separated us from the beginning because we would help each other out…"

"Maybe that's why they're so effective…" Midoriya quietly says. "Their strength isn't solely numbers, but in their AI. They're self-learning. Their arms too… Before, both of them were a single weapon: two swords, two guns, two wires even. Just a minute ago, I saw a combination of a baton and a sword."

"Their arms are modular… That sucks so much…" I look up to the sky, blocked with green leaves and trees. "Our previous thinking is wrong. There isn't 'melee' or 'ranged' GMs. There's only GMs. The combinations we encountered so far only scratched the surface, maybe weapons and gadgets too. That's Edgeshot's game. In the beginning, he built our confidence with easy, simplistic marks. Then, as we head deeper inside the beast's mouth, it becomes more intense, systematically dismantling the ego we built."

I squint at the GMs' legs. "...It's not out of the question that arms aren't the only modular part they have. We need to consider legs too. I was beginning to question the strain this exercise will have on our bodies, but now I get it. This is where it really begins. The injuries we have now will only stack up."

"Inochi…" murmurs Midoriya exhaustedly. "Can we...still make it in time?"

"Impossible. Genuinely impossible. I have a bum leg that'll get worse. Our pace will be halved once we're a third in. Once we finish, I wouldn't be surprised if our speed is five percent of what it was in the beginning. Unless, you wanna take our chances and risk complete defeat, or worst case, death."

"Let's…" Midoriya shuts his eyes, gritting his teeth. "...not loiter. Take our time, but we have to operate at our best."

"Sounds like a plan." I tear a sword-arm from a nearby GM. "I have a suggestion for you, actually. Carry rocks in your pockets."

"Huh? Rocks?" Confused. Doesn't he understand what I'm getting at?

I gesture towards the rocks at our feet. "Rocks. You have guns too: your arms. Imagine throwing rocks at bullet-like velocities? No matter the size, they will go through them. You'll be more effective fighting on both fronts."

"That's a good idea!" Taking my suggestion into action, Midoriya begins stuffing rocks into his pockets.

Out of context, this would be a weird sight.

I shake my head, wincing from pain the rubber bullets left. I'm not sure if I can walk at the end of this… Whatever we'll go through, it'll be torture.

One hundred fifty GMs.

Arm modules: twenty-inch blade, twenty-inch baton, wires, nets (one-use), tasers (knuckles and gun), flashbangs, bright flashlights, automatic firearms, and shotguns.

Leg modules: Five-inch blade (located at the foot), nets (launched from the shin, one-use), hydraulic springs (modification: allows for improved mobility), flashbangs (popped from the knee), and I think that's it…

In some of the fights, the GMs were literally taking the arms and legs of their fallen comrades to replace their own. Completely modular as I theorized. They were expendable, and that was exactly how they treated each other.

Frankly, I'm amazed me and Midoriya survived. One hundred fifty GMs. We counted them. That's how many we fought through over the course of twelve hours. Constant, endless fights. We were on the run, pinned behind large rocks, brawling for our lives. One time, while we were drinking at a pond, GMs ambushed me and I almost drowned. There was another where I pulled a GM off of Midoriya but one with a shotgun modification blasted me in the chest—that's how we found out that they had shotguns. Because of it, he literally had to help me walk for a couple of hours.

My shirt is in tatters. I'm not even wearing it. It was a better idea to use it as a makeshift bandage over my various wounds. My white dress shirt is nothing but red ribbons now. We don't have any way to be treated. There's no doctors in sight. No one but us, limping our way to our objective barely holding on for dear life. We haven't eaten anything since breakfast, well over twelve hours ago. Expending so much energy has us exhausted, the color drained from our faces.

The idle talks we had at the beginning went extinct. We simply didn't have the stamina to carry a simple conversation, our thoughts focused on this heinous exercise. Out of us two, I'm more injured. My left leg feels like it's about to fall off, and my ribs are telling me they're gonna collapse onto my lungs.

From the various GMs that managed to cut me, I was barely able to stop the bleeding. I almost resorted to cauterizing myself. Infection? I'm pretty sure I'm infected with trillions of bacteria eating away at me. I rolled around in dirt, in mud, on top of trees… There's no way I'm clean.

There's no way I can fight at full capacity. It hurts just lifting up a sword. I can't use Isshin Jukaze, been that way for a while now. My arms don't have the precision needed to perform its techniques. All I can do is sloppily slash away hoping for the best. I'm here, praying that this death march comes to an end. I want to lay down and sleep for a long time…

I have headaches too. Bad headaches that makes me wanna reach into my ears and pull my brain out. It started a couple of hours ago, continuous pulsating agonizing vibrations that I can feel across my skull. It's my Quirk… I can tell that it's my Quirk… Is this what Edgeshot wants? Almost kill me so they can use me to risk my life over and over?

Disgusting… Horrible… I'm treated like garbage for being legally Quirkless, then I'm treated like a tool for being too powerful. Just my luck. Just my rotten, no-good, luck. Can I dig myself a grave and lie there forever? Better yet, can I push Edgeshot in and pray he doesn't come out to haunt me?

"Haah…" I fall to one knee, beyond exhausted. Another headache rises up, paralyzing me where I kneeled.

"I...nochi…" mutters Midoriya with his left eye half-closed.

"F-Fine…" I shake my head, vigorously at that, acting like all the pain would go away. "Head...ache…"

It takes about thirty seconds for the migraine to subside. After that, there's no choice but to push onwards, cursing at Edgeshot inside our heads. I don't know how long we walked, or how much time passed. It feels like an eternity no doubt, an endless forest that will never give us peace. Until…

We come to a small opening: the mystical red dot we are supposed to meet. Sixty percent into The Beast's Forest. It took us the entire day to reach here, and there's nothing but grass and small rocks. Hell, this feels like paradise though. Thank God, maybe today can end. Since we took so long, the nightly training Edgeshot must've planned will be canceled. He has to be reasonable enough to let us rest, right?

I exchange a brief glance with Midoriya. Relief is in our eyes. Quickly, limping our way to the center, we stand there and we wait, we wait, we wait, and we beg for any god or goddess out there for mercy. We can't say anything, only stand with our rickety legs ready to give out, our arms on the verge of falling out of our sockets, the bloated heads we have that will explode at any given second, ready for the inevitable completion we'll have next.

I—!

—POP!

A rubber bullet kicks up dirt in front of us. It's not over… Shit, this fucking exercise isn't over… Around us, hidden behind bushes and trees are countless white dots, steady and motionless. Genkei Mushas. I don't know how many there are. My brain doesn't have the mental capability to count anymore.

They surround me and Midoriya. I'm not surprised that we didn't spot them. We fell right into their trap. Honestly, we deserve whatever's coming next.

Weakly, Midoriya lifts up his cracked and blooded fists, and I drag my sword on the ground. At the same time, all of the GMs charge. They're not holding back anymore. There's large enough numbers where we'll be swarmed the moment we do anything. But despite that reality, I would rather get knocked down fighting.

Me and Midoriya separate, taking meager steps towards the horde of GMs. He takes the southern side while I take the northern. On my end, a couple of GMs—I can't register what weapons they're using—are unfortunately at the front of the pack. I raise my sword high above my head, letting my arms wail. Once I don't have the strength to hold it up, I let gravity do the work, splitting the GM's head open.

The next one beside it waves a baton and strikes me in the gut. I reel over. If there's anything in my stomach, it'd be spilling out of my mouth right now. Somehow, I manage to remain standing, shoulder-shoving the GM onto the ground and dropping my sword into its forehead.

Before I can retake my weapon, I get kicked in the side by a metal shin. I roll over, multiple times actually, and get on my knee. Another GM hops on me, but I push it away into the crowd. By now, everyone's on us. There's so many sets of legs that it can be a night at the club. Everyone's dancing, having fun…

I try to join the party by fully standing up, but I get shot in the back with a shotgun. I can't feel the pain anymore, only the immense force behind the blast. I fall over, back-side first, staring up into the sky.

The stars are pretty, aren't they? My vision's blurry, but they're pretty. I lift my head to get a better look—

—WHACK!

"Papa! Papa!"

"Ah, what's wrong, little one?"

"Nothing! Uh, can you read a story for bedtime? I really liked Momotaro!"

"Hehe, of course I can. As long as it's a story your mother approves of. Sometimes, she says that me or your brother can be a bad influence."

"No you're not! You're the bestest best influence! You read a ton of stories! How can they be bad?!"

"You'd be surprised. If I read you a story about warriors clashing blades, she would disapprove because of its violence."

"I guess so…" I frowned. "Why do people fight anyway?"

"Why? Well, it's not a simple answer. People, well, humans fight for various reasons. Pride, money, fame, it's dependent on who you ask."

"...You fought too, right Papa? Only people who fight have scars. They limp just like you."

Dad's eyes widened. Then, they softened back to his paternal care. "My, how perceptive. I'm afraid you're too young to know my story, little one."

I didn't listen to him. "Why did you fight, Papa? I don't like fighting."

"You don't?" He was surprised that I said that. "Can I ask why?"

"'Cuz you're hurt. Big Bro's training to fight too. I don't wanna see him hurt. Even if I hafta do fight, I don't wanna do it!"

"Ah…" Dad meekly smiled, having nothing but remorse in his expression. He was blurry still, but I could see it. "Come here, little one."

I did what he said, and he embraced me.

"You have a big heart, bigger than mine. I pray that you never have to fight. Your innocence, I wish that it'll be forever maintained. The world is a cruel place, my boy. Yet…"

I hugged him tighter.

"Since you exist, I exist as well."

My eyes flutter open, just enough where I have a glimpse of a white light shining on me. I'm outside.

"...This is absurd, Edgeshot."

"I'm disappointed."

"Is that all you can say?"

"I am disappointed, Doctor Shirabe. They performed terribly."

"What the fuck did you expect, you psychopath?"

"I expected they would arrive at the objective within six hours, not twelve, and they would be capable of handling fifty GMs at once. Armory only dealt with one until he was rendered unconscious, leaving Deku to handle the rest."

"It's a miracle that he did. Guess what though? He collapsed after the fight ended, and they're currently in cots while me, a metaologist so not a medical professional, have to administer first aid. Why? Because you neglected to bring medical androids over even after I suggested it."

"Hmph, do you believe they will be able to perform nightly training?"

"Oh, like I said before, I'm not a medical professional—no. What did you want me to say? 'Yes, Edgeshot. Please use this poor, injured, practically on the verge of death via exhaustion, young Heroes and make them great!'"

"These wounds are trivial in the grand scheme of the country."

"Trivial… Fractured bones, concussions, exhaustion, they're trivial. Did your 'grand scheme' call for their early deaths?"

I'm...getting sleepy again…

"Their injuries were beyond the margins I estimated, yet their combat capability was below. In any case, they are the direct cause of their state. They are pitiful excuses as Japan's next hope."

"You are seriously blaming them for your ineptitude as a competent teacher? Dear God—"

"—Don't insult me, Doctor Shirabe. Give them the necessary treatment and report on their status in half an hour. They're due to wake up soon."

My eyes shut.

"Mama, can I ask you something?"

"What is it, sweetie?""You're, uh, what was it again… Korean! How did you meet Papa if you were all the way across the sea?"

Mom softened, a melancholic expression took over her. "I met your father while he was on a work trip. We met in Busan, a city in South Korea."

"What did he do?"

"Volunteer work. He wanted to help the less fortunate. That's why I fell in love with him. He was a genuine man who wished the world a better place."

"Mhm mhm, sounds like Papa! What 'bout you, Mama? What were you?"

"Ah, I was a businesswoman for a large company. I was quite essential too. One of the few who could speak both Korean and Japanese.""Cool! Too bad I don't know any Korean…"

"I could teach you. Can you say 'saranghae' for me?"

"Sa… Sa-rong-hae?"

"Close! Sa-rang-hae. Try saying it faster!"

"Saranghae!"

"Look at you! A natural! Now, try saying 'umma' before it."

"Umma saranghae!"

"Hehe! Exactly it! Say it again for me!"

"Umma saranghae!"

"Yay! What did I say, Mama?"

"You said, 'I love you, Mom.'"

"I did?! You tricked me! What if I said something bad?!"

Mom, with her blurry figure, wrapped her arms around me. "I wouldn't do that to you, sweetie… I only wanted to hear you say it because I love you so, so much. One of these days, you'll grow up and be your own man. You'll find someone you love and do whatever makes you happy. In South Korea, we have this funny word 'jagiya'. You use it whenever you want to affectionately call to your lover. It's embarrassing to say it, you seldom use it in public because of it, but it's cute."

I couldn't tell, but I had a feeling that she was softly crying. "I can't wait to see you grow up someday…"

She said my name.

I shut my eyes.

"Oh man, oh man! Why did Mama run off with Edgeshot all of the sudden?! Sage might be a smart girl, the bestest engineer, but she's not a doctor or a babysitter! Why does she have to—?!"

—I sit up.

"Wahh?! Hey, don't pop up like that, you zombie! You scared the living daylights—actually it's night—nightlights out of Sage!" Beside me, a miniature robot half my height rolls to my bedside. Has treads to move, skinny robot arms, light body, and a large monitor as a head. On top of the monitor is a visible camera. The monitor…

There's a young girl with black hair. Dark green and dull yellow strands flow throughout her hair, promptly tied up into two small buns at the back of her head. She's sitting in a dark room lounging on a chair. Chubby cheeks, round face, anyone would call her "cute". Not the picturesque image of a model, but beautiful in her own way.

I have no idea who she is. I don't have the motivation to ask questions right now. All I can do is stay silent and dwell on the memories that emerged: my brother, thinking about U.A. High School, and my mother, who looked forward to me growing up… I don't remember them, I don't remember their faces, yet these small glimpses into my past, the word "longing" doesn't nearly describe how I feel.

The girl exclaims, "Hey! Aren't you listening to Sage?! Sage gets it, you were really injured thanks to that ninja and his whacky training! But Sage didn't think it was so bad that you'd get depressed about it! She's lucky that the other guy didn't wake up!"

Depressed? God, I bet I look miserable. My chest is covered in gauze, my head too. It's drooping down enough that it's barely covering my left eye. Added with my family, it's a concoction of misery. I—Wait, what did this girl say…?

"Sage?" I ask. "You're...Sage?"

She nods, pushing herself back in her chair, nearly reclining ninety degrees. Smugly, she looks off to the side and smirks. "Of course! Sage is Sage, who did you expect? The Commission noticed that Sage's Quirk is realllllly useful, so they gave Sage her codename! That's how Her Wizardry, Sage, was made!"

Project Sage is her? A girl? This eccentric girl is the center of a secret project? What kind of a Quirk does she have? Why… Why is she behind a screen and not here personally? What did the Commission do to her?

"Hey!" Sage suddenly shouts. "Why are you looking at Sage like that?! Did Sage ask you to look at her with pity?! Nuh-uh! Besides, you should be more polite to your seniors! Her Wizardry happens to be older than you, y'know! She's nineteen!"

"You're nineteen?!" How is she nineteen?! She looks nowhere near that age! I thought she was, at maximum, the same age as I am! A part of me believed Sage was still in middle school!

Sage huffs. "Don't sound so shocked! It's obvious, innit?! The disrespect is almost unbelievable! The moment you wake up, you bully Sage! That's really mean! Mama told me to always be respectful but not to jerks like you!"

"Mama?" I frown. Reminds me too much of how I called my own mom. Speaking of which, I think I know who her mother is… "Kei Shirabe? Is she your mother?"

At the mention of Doctor Shirabe's name, Sage smiles. It's such a genuine smile, one that you absolutely can't stop yourself from forming. "Mhm! That's Mama! A lot of people don't know, but Sage's real name is Chie! Chie Shirabe! But you? Hmph, Sage is just fine."

...That's why Doctor Shirabe is associated with the Hero Public Safety Commission. She had a daughter who turned out to have a "useful Quirk", so much that they essentially used her as a tool for their own gains. The Commission let Edgeshot conduct a "training" exercise. It wouldn't be beneath them if they stole Sage's childhood away. It's so horrible that it's almost unbelievable.

"Sanji…" A headache overtakes me. "S-Sanji Inochi… That's my name—yeah, it's my name. You can call me 'Sanji', Sage."

Sage crosses her arms. "Sage knows exactly who you are, Missingno!"

"...Missingno?"

She points to her eyes. "That's what Sage calls everyone who she can't see! Her Quirk, Sage's Eyes, lets her scan everyone, even through cameras, letting her know a heck lot about their Quirks! That's only one part, hehe! She looked at you and you were a big blob of error! None of it made sense! But but, she expected it would happen! Mental-types are usually resistant to her Sage's Eyes! As great as they are, they're helpless once it comes to Quirks that make your brain all funky! They build a wall that she can't get through!"

Sage's Eyes: that's the name of her Quirk. It's a mega-analysis Quirk I assume. Good to know that Mental-types have some sort of immunity to it. Wait, doesn't that mean Sage's Eyes have something to do with the human mind? Otherwise, it wouldn't need to encounter a wall at all. This is good information to have.

As much as I wanna ask more, there's something pressing that I need to attend to first. "Where's your mother and Edgeshot?"

Sage maneuvers her monitor around the forest's edge. "Well… A little while ago, Sage was cleaning up the GMs you and Mini-All Might destroyed! That was when she heard some people talking about apprehending Mama and Edgeshot! She drove lightning-speed back and told them in a panic. Mama asked her to watch you two and that's where we are!"

People are gonna apprehend Shirabe and Edgeshot? Crap, I think I know who they are. "Sage, what time is it?"

"Uhh…" She looks off-screen, presumably a clock. "Twelve thirty-six! Why?"

Crap, me and Midoriya roughly started our exercise around ten. It's been fourteen hours. Everyone else would've made it to camp already, but it's incredibly worrying that we aren't there. Ragdoll, her Quirk is Search. She knows exactly where we are. Why hasn't she contacted us sooner? Commission's orders. Mandalay's Quirk is Telepath, so she could've contacted us too. She couldn't.

Here's what I think happened: The Pussycats and our teachers were waiting for us at camp. When 1-A and 1-B came back, they thought we would follow after them with Ragdoll as their scout. Ragdoll watched us, then when we went unconscious and taken to here, she must've told the rest. Mandalay must've tried to contact us via Telepath but was unable to. Unconscious people can't receive messages. The Pussycats and our teachers most likely argued about chasing after us directly, possibly conflicting against the Commission's orders. In the end, they went anyway. The risks outweighed the costs.

I stand out of my cot. I nearly topple over but I catch myself. Sage scolds, "Hey Missingno, what the heck are you doing?! You shouldn't be standing so soon!"

"Where did they go?" I scan the treeline, keeping an ear out for any abnormalities. Can only hear birds chirping, not people.

Sage turns herself towards their general direction. "Over there, but—!"

"—Good, watch Midoriya. Make sure you stay outta sight just in case, Sage." Before she can protest, and possibly prevent me from leaving—I have no idea if her robot comes with tasers—I pace myself, far enough where Sage has to stay with Midoriya or risk abandoning him altogether.

With Sage shouting at me, I duck into the forest once again. My heart uncomfortably beats against my chest, the memories from the exercise stirring. At my lonesome, my brain can't help but replay the almost-harrowing experience—pure exhaustion, feeling like I was on the brink of death for hours, the fear of having a GM come outta nowhere and kill me—it was an intense time. Reliving it gets so bad that I have to stop and lean against a tree to regain my composure; then, I had no choice but to press forward.

Luckily, I can easily track Edgeshot and Doctor Shirabe. They pushed through bushes and left small indentations on the grass. Following that, I'm guaranteed to eventually encounter them. It takes a few minutes, but I can faintly hear shouting at ten o'clock. There, I see a white lab coat fluttering with a man in a shinobi costume. On the other side, it's exactly who I thought.

"It has been approximately fourteen hours and thirty minutes since we last saw Inochi and Midoriya," says Mister Aizawa at the front of the pack, veins popping out of his forehead. His black hair levitates behind him, added with the intimidating sight of his support weapon ready to launch at Edgeshot's neck like a viper. "We know they completed their exercise, and we ought to be informed of their status."

"My word should be plenty sufficient for you, Eraserhead." However, Edgeshot stands unshaken. "They did complete their exercise in good health. That is all I will tell you. Your notion of having the 'right' to your students' status is irrelevant considering the Hero Public Safety Commission explicitly ordered that their education will be under my hands for the duration of the camp. By your insistence, you are threatening to disobey your employers, and should I mention your clearly aggravated posture?"

"We have more than enough reason to think you nearly killed them!" Mister Kan exclaims. "We heard gunshots ringing out in the forest. Multiple gunshots. Do you think we're submissive enough to ignore it?"

"You should be obedient enough to trust in the process, not constantly ridicule me or your employers. It's a disgrace to see you all as Pro Heroes. You are completely incapable of realizing the responsibility your students have, coddling them instead of seeking to achieve their true potential," Edgeshot scolds everyone in the group.

Mandalay, who's standing next to Ragdoll, says, "We can't turn an idle eye if one of our own is in danger."

"It's what we do as the Pussycats, Edgeshot!" Ragdoll exclaims, her green hair bouncing. "No absolutely way that we can stand by and worry about the safety of our students! You've given us no evidence to prove it! Not a modicum or a litany!"

"And like hell we can trust you." Someone from the back of the group speaks up: Itsuka. I should've known she tagged along. Not surprised. Not in the slightest. It's good to see her though. Even her angry face is comforting. "All you care about is turning Sanji and Midoriya into weapons. You think your own word is enough, but in the same sentence, you disregard the fact that they're human. I wonder what does the doctor think? She barely said anything."

Doctor Shirabe sneers off to her left, her hands in her lab coat pockets. Edgeshot glares at the doctor, as if he's telling her to shut up and not agree with them. Sage is leverage that the Commission probably uses to keep Shirabe in check. If Edgeshot's here, she can't be vocal about her true opinions…

RUSTLE RUSTLE!

Edgeshot snaps towards my direction. "Who's there?!"

"A pitiful excuse for a Pro Hero," I call out. From the trees, I emerge, standing at the side between the two groups. Everyone has their eyes on me. For Shirabe and Edgeshot: a complete surprise, seeing that I not only woke up, but was able to walk over here. For the Pussycats plus my teachers and Itsuka… "Horror" doesn't describe their reaction nearly as well as I would've liked. As I said, a majority of my chest and head are covered in bandages.

"Sanji, what the hell happened to you?!" Itsuka runs up and checks my wounds. She places her hands over various sensitive areas, causing me to wince. Seeing so, she eases up. "You were gone for a day! You didn't have a scratch this morning!"

"Where's Midoriya, Inochi?" asks Mister Aizawa.

Answering him directly, I say, "Resting back at wherever I was—Ragdoll can tell you. I just woke up recently and…" I glance at Doctor Shirabe. It's not a good idea to expose Sage's existence. That might cause an entire new conflict to arise. They won't be able to stand down knowing the Commission essentially kidnapped a girl since birth. A fight might break out, and that'll seriously endanger my rights to freedom. If I want a good ending tonight, I need to de-escalate it; instead, I oughta put the pressure on Edgeshot. "...I decided to wander around until I heard something. That's how I found you."

"You left Midoriya alone?" questions Aizawa further.

Awkwardly, I scratch my cheek, turning away. "There's medical robots like the ones we have at school, just...creepier. You might've seen a few carcasses lying around: their combat versions, the ones me and Midoriya fought. Genkei Mushas, that's what they're called. One of the Commission's pet projects."

A lie. As far as I know, there's no supportive versions of GMs; they're all meant to fight. However, they won't question me. They don't know anything about the Commission's projects, especially the Genkei Mushas, so they have to take my word as fact. Ragdoll can prove that Midoriya is the only one there. Sage isn't there physically as a robot is standing in as her proxy. Ragdoll has no way to sense Sage's presence. I'm only lying to protect her and curry favor with Doctor Shirabe.

Besides…

...I don't think Sage has the social capability if they intervene under the best case scenario. She might shut down and put us in a worse spot. Doctor Shirabe will be placed under harsh scrutiny, and I have no idea what Edgeshot will do then. This is just a precaution to prevent any unnecessary variables from taking place.

"What…?" mutters Edgeshot while Shirabe is silent. They're bewildered that I would lie about Sage. They knew I met her. This might be good actually. While they try to think about my possible motives, I have more time to talk to the others. Speaking of who, Ragdoll nods and whispers something to Mandalay. Looks like they're validating my story. They haven't asked me to develop any of my assumptions so I'm gonna say that I'm in the clear.

"So that's what they're called," Mister Kan mutters. "We did see one of 'em lying around. God, that'd be a terrifying nurse. Anyway, what exactly did the exercise entail, Inochi?"

"Mister Kan!" Itsuka exclaims, "don't you think asking him is a lil' too much right now? Look at him!"

Reassuringly, I take her hand. "I might be in pain, a lot of pain actually, but I can explain what happened. Though, I imagine that Edgeshot can pull the Pro Hero handbook outta his butt and prevent me from saying anything about the exercise. It's one of the skeletons in his closet."

Emphasizing the "one" and staring directly at the man, I'm, uh, yeah, I'm basically blackmailing him. If he stops me from spilling the beans, I'll tell everyone about Sage—a dirtier skeleton than the near-torture of an exercise me and Midoriya went through. Edgeshot has to either choose between his pride or Sage. I barely know anything about him, but the most logical course of action…

...He silently scowls, turning his head to the side. That's his answer. Good. If I allowed him to think on it for a minute or two, he may be insane enough to want a fight. It'll give him the excuse to do anything he wants when it settles.

"Alright." I let go of Itsuka's hand. Everyone waits for my explanation. Mister Aizawa calms down too, his hair and support weapon affected by gravity again. "I said it before but we fought the Genkei Mushas. Itsuka, I dunno how hard the Earth Beasts were, but the GMs were a hundred times more brutal. Over the course of twelve hours, they hanged me by the neck with a wire attachment in their arms, they shot me almost point-blank with a shotgun containing rubber bullets, they brought metal batons on my legs, sliced me open with blades, and that scratches the surface.

"They genuinely tried to kill us. Imagine dangerous machines like that spread out over a course of twelve hours with injuries and exhaustion compounding together. Me and Midoriya, heh. We counted how many we destroyed before we reached the objective: one hundred-fifty. It doesn't end there. When we actually completed our trek, fifty GMs were waiting for us. They charged in at once, and almost immediately, my head was cracked open. Me, unconscious. Midoriya had to handle the rest on his own and collapsed afterwards.

"It's a miracle that we lived if my injures aren't proof enough. Edgeshot thought our combined abilities would be enough, so he cranked the difficulty to the highest imaginable. Twelve hours, two hundred GMs, just the two of us. He excused the magnitude of the exercise by saying that we're 'supposed to be Pro Heroes', 'Japan's next hope', holding us to an impossible standard. When we didn't meet it, he insulted us for our mediocrity. So yeah, I'm a little angry that we were forced on a death march, ended up ridiculed for our supposed failure.

"This entire day was us almost dying to live up to a Hero's grandiose ideal." I glance around everyone. On Itsuka's side, they're mortified with the information I gave them. They never expected the Commission to go so far. On Edgeshot's, he's shamefully turned away with Shirabe having a hand over her mouth, satisfied. "Doctor Shirabe, you agree, don't you? You tried to hold Edgeshot back."

Doctor Shirabe freezes as I call on her specifically. She looks at Edgeshot and realizes that he doesn't have the situational advantage here. He's distinctly at a disadvantage that I forced him onto. Taking a deep breath in, she nods.

"Inochi summed up what transpired. The Genkei Mushas had limiters that the operator could set; Edgeshot turned them off. He had a bloated 'confidence' in the boys that he—" Shirabe clears her throat; I think she almost caught herself from exposing my lie, "—he initially rejected having medical bots on hand, saying that they didn't 'need them'. As much as I would've liked to have something more reasonable, I have no real authority here. I'm only a metaologist employed by the Commission, not an official. I can only give advice; most of it was rejected by yours truly."

Good, everything's going the way I want. I placed the entire blame on Edgeshot while convincing Doctor Shirabe to take my side. If I hadn't protected Sage, then she would be reluctant to. By lying about her existence, I proved that I'm someone who could be trusted. Really, Doctor Shirabe is partly for blamed for what happened, but I'm not particularly angry at her. I'm really pissed at Edgeshot though, and it's taking some self-control from lashing out at him.

Mister Aizawa rubs his eyes, deep in thought. "Edgeshot, what you did violated not only their rights as students and citizens of Japan, but their rights as humans. This goes beyond the standard, typical training exercise that Hero Students undergo on a regular basis. There has to always be a degree of safety to ensure their health, and you disregarded everything, justified only by purely your own delusions.

"We had valid reason of concern considering the Commission's authoritarian measures, but this goes beyond common sense, diving head-first into absurdity. It amazes me that you can call yourself a Pro Hero, standing in the Top Ten while single-handedly threatening not only the lives of two students, but a scandal so impossibly large that U.A. would be forced to shut down.

"Simply put: what the fuck are you doing?"

Edgeshot sighs. He sighs like he's annoyed this happened. Without addressing Mister Aizawa in the slightest, he approaches me. Defensively, Itsuka pushes me behind her, causing him to laugh. "Cowering behind your partner, Armory? Your inadequacy is appalling. You must be satisfied in your cleverness, but the simple fact of the matter is: You are utterly useless."

Itsuka snaps, "Don't talk to him like that—"

"—Did I give you permission to speak?!" Edgeshot roars over the birds. We're breathless, caught directly in his rage. "Sanji Inochi, Armory, you are useless in everything you do. Completely incapable of fighting as a Pro Hero, terribly misguided in the way you think. I heard your conversations with Deku pertaining to your childhood. How tragic, I give you no sympathy."

My lips tighten. Instinctively, I look towards itsuka. I don't want her to start asking questions. I'm ashamed of what happened, yet Edgeshot, he'll probably do anything to force me to reminsience—a malevolent form of nostalgia.

"Let me ask you all." Edgeshot gives his voice to the rest of the group. "Do you think this conversation changed anything? The fact of the matter is: you've gained useless information. You have earned no tangible authority over your circumstances, nor do you have any schemes worth playing. What did you receive? Confirmation over your suspicions, and for the duration of camp, stress while dealing with your subordinate students. Ignorance would be a preferable option, yet you had other opinions."

"What about the Commission?!" Ragdoll pleads. "Surely the President is completely against it! This is inhumane, like sending cows to the butcher! Heroes are supposed to be better than this! The Commission has to uphold those ideals, don't they?!"

"Yes, we do." A voice rings out from behind Edgeshot and Doctor Shirabe. Shirabe gasps, her lips quivering. A robot rolls into the forest—it's Sage's. It's her robot, I recognize it. Except for a cute, chubby girl on the monitor, it's a middle-aged woman having no warmth in her heart: the President of the Hero Public Safety Commission. "You insult me, Ragdoll. You believe I would be careless to allow Edgeshot free reign while I'm ill-informed? Quite the opposite: we practice good communication. I approved of the plans he made."

Itsuka mutters under her breath, "This hag…" I tug on her sleeve. Gotta make sure she stays silent.

Mister Kan and Aizawa are watching their boss carefully, knowing better to shout without thinking—Mandalay too. Doctor Shirabe turns away, meekly at that. The confidence I've seen before is gone. That's the influence the President has over us. She's not special in the slightest. Between what shines more, her wrinkles or her throne, the answer's obvious.

"For your information, I will continue to approve of them. To think I would need to explain this to experienced Pro Heroes as you all, let alone Edgeshot forced to notify me using a silent alert, is downright insulting. On the first day, you have already taken precious time away from Armory and Deku in direct defiance of the orders given by the same body you work under. Normally, this calls for a punishment, but let this serve as a warning."

The President narrows her eyes at everyone here. "Do not interfere. If you violate this command and we're made aware, Edgeshot will notify me. Upon the event, the following Heroes will have their licenses suspended: Eraserhead, Vlad King, Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, Ragdoll, and Tiger. The Commission will recommend two new teachers for U.A. High School under the first-year Heroics Course as I warned before. You may have the means to damage the reputation of the Hero Public Safety Commission, yet we have the means to shut U.A. High School down completely.

"It is quite aggravating to spell it out, yet my words fall on deaf ears. So be it. Appreciate your good fortunes to have All Might at your side. His word carries the greatest weight of us all. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?"

In particular, the President glances at me. I get shivers.

No one from my side responds. We know the consequences. All Might is our saving grace. The chance the Commission angers him, he'll speak out and ruin its reputation for decades. Though, it doesn't mean the Commission is completely afraid of him. They're acting with vicious logic, taking the easiest route while minimizing the losses. This alone wouldn't cause All Might to turned this earth scorched, so it's acceptable.

Really, they think All Might is already dead. They're only concerned about how much stink his body will make before the funeral comes.

In the end, no one can say anything. It's our defeat. No matter what the Heroes know, it's a matter of "What can they do?". They can't risk their positions for a week of peace. Whatever exercise they've planned today will continue with its intensity tomorrow. It's a matter if I end up dead before camp ends.

Dammit, I was hopeful too. By guiding the conversation, maybe someone would have a good idea to get me and Midoriya outta this sticky situation. No dice. The President's word is iron-clad. No loopholes will be tolerated.

With that as our final answer, the President huffs in annoyance. "I'll take the dead silence as an answer, I suppose. Go back to the rest of your charge, all of you. Armory will be taken back to the mobile research center. I expect no snaggles from here on out. For you in particular, Mandalay: if I catch wind of you using Telepath to communicate with Armory or Deku, punishment will be administered."

Mandalay gulps, ultimately nodding.

Itsuka tenses. She wants to do something; out of all of the feelings in the world, the most she hates is feeling helpless. But she knows better. She's stubborn, reckless sometimes. Not stupid. She's definitely not stupid. Edgeshot beckons me with a single look to leave; before I'm forced to do so, Itsuka whispers, "Sanji—"

"—Jagiya saranghae," I whisper back. My pronunciation isn't perfect, but it's enough. Itsuka stops, perplexed. "My mom was from Korea. When I was younger, I wanted to learn Korean from her. Those were the first words she taught me."

Her pupils dilate, realizing the weight behind my words. There's a hundred things she wants to say and ask, yet we don't have time to exchange anything further than that. I'm remembering my family. That's enough for her to worry.

Jagiya saranghae. I hope I'm using those words correctly, Mom. I can't remember how you looked, only the gentle, wave-like motions in your voice. I can't remember how you lit up seeing me smile, but I can still vaguely feel the heat you imprinted on me. I'm sorry for not remembering you better.

To the rest of the group, I tell them, "See you guys later. Tell everyone that me and Deku are doing alright."

They only nod. I understand their wordless desires.

Me, Edgeshot, the President, and Doctor Shirabe leave, going back to the mobile research center. That must be where I woke up. Edgeshot and the President are in the front while I'm behind them with Shirabe.

Her eyes are bent towards the dirt. "...Why did you hide Chie? You could've exposed her. You don't particularly like the Commission; it would've been justified." I glance at Edgeshot and the President. They can't hear us; Shirabe's talking too quietly for them to hear.

"I didn't want to escalate the tension. Something bad might've happened." From what little I know about Shirabe, she doesn't like the Commission either. "Thought I could get the advantage somehow… Ended up giving myself hope for nothing."

"Edgeshot might think you're worthless, but you're a natural-born leader," Shirabe tries to cheer me up. "To have that situational awareness and act on it, it's impressive, Inochi. I wish I had that."

There's regret in her words. Can't help but assume my previous assumptions were right: she's stuck in the Commission because of Sage. I want to help her. Not because she's the only one who isn't a psychopath, but witnessing a mother and daughter living through hell for the "greater good" is not right.

For the rest of the walk, no one says anything. It's ominous. Two walking disasters are here with me, and they haven't said a word. I get no time to deliberate. Before I know it, we're here. The President says, "I'll relinquish control and hand it over to Sage. It'll take a few minutes. I trust everything will go according to plan, Edgeshot?"

He nods. "It will. Have a peaceful night."

"Mhm." And the President logs off, leaving the robot derelict.

Over at the center, Midoriya's sitting up on his cot. He sees us and waves with an arm wrapped in bandages. "Inochi! You were awake? I—"

"—Doctor Shirabe," Edgeshot interrupts him, "we wasted enough time already. The boys are more than healthy enough to commence night training. Observe Midoriya with Sage when she comes back online. I'll take Inochi."

"..." Shirabe's silent.

"Doctor Shirabe."

"I heard you."

Shirabe walks over to Midoriya, taking out a few pieces of equipment from the research center and putting it outside. They start chatting, but I can't hear what they're saying exactly. Sage's robot sits there inactive. Edgeshot watches them carefully to ensure everything's proceeding smoothly…

Then he takes me. I don't have a chance to talk to Midoriya before I leave, or even protest to the sudden training. Edgeshot's already whisking me away from the research center in the opposite direction where we met the others. Of course, I could've refused and stood where I was at, but that's a horrible idea. Silver lining though: Edgeshot didn't get to talk with Midoriya first. I trust Shirabe enough to explain what happened without indoctrinating him—Sage too.

The only person I don't trust is…

"...We're here, Armory," Edgeshot says, turning to face me. We're about fifty meters deep into the forest in a small clearing, the moonlight beaming down on us. It's difficult to see everything with the minimal light I have. Almost comically, a single ray diagonally slashes across Edgeshot's face, revealing his left eye.

I don't like where this is going. I really don't like where this is going.

"I'm nowhere near capable to do whatever training you have in mind," I tell him. In his eyes, I didn't suffer much injuries probably! Just multiple bruises, a concussion, maybe a few fractured bones, cuts, torn muscles, the typical injuries that you can shrug off.

Edgeshot glares. "On the contrary, you thought yourself clever. After waking up, you were able to take control of a volatile situation. You have more than enough capability to fight verbally, then suppose physically, it should be quite simple."

"I could've exposed Sage's existence. You were lucky that—!"

—KICK!

Edgeshot kicks me in the stomach. I'm pushed back, my ankles hitting a toppled log behind me. I fall over, stumbling on various of injuries. My nerves ignite in pain, as if they're electrocuting me each time I move. The kick itself is devastating, but landing is so much worse.

Barely, I push my elbows on the grass to hold myself up as Edgeshot hovers over me. "Don't talk back, Armory. It's unbecoming of a Pro Hero to think himself a high presence. My disdain for you is already high."

"Hah…" I breathe, each gasp of air rattling my ribs. "...S-So what? You wanted to beat me instead? Urg, hah..."

"If you fail. Your training for tonight is this: land a single finger on me and you'll return to the mobile research center being able to sleep for the rest of the night. You have two hours. Each attempt will net a counter. If five seconds pass and you remain idle, I'll act swiftly. I am the No.5 Pro Hero, so I expect a boy with a caliber to soar beyond No.1 to not disappoint me further," Edgeshot explains. This sounds ludicrous! Two hours to touch him?! Else I'll get knocked around silly?!

I snarl, "You're insane, Edgeshot! I barely survived the first suicide run you forced me through! I—!"

—SLAP!

"Guh—ah—!" He backhands me. My lips are cracked, blood dripping from them.

"Five seconds. Though, I'll grant you a small moment of reprieve." Edgeshot wipes the hand he slapped me with, like he's cleaning away the filth he scraped by touching me. "You are utterly despicable, that is my personal opinion. Born with an Origin-type Quirk and neglected to notify the Commission until recently. You are rebellious, talking back and insulting the President, to me, instead relying on Pro Heroes who know nothing of the troublesome times ahead. They are an awful influence, wavering your mind to the most important cause this country has. Especially your partner."

"Don't talk about—!"

—He backhands me again, wiping his hand afterwards like clockwork. "I'm not finished. I also overheard your conversations with Deku, the successor to All Might. How dare you demoralize him? That boy was picked by All Might himself, so his ideals should not be tainted by scum like you. Your 'horrible' experiences, you never learned to move on, so you spread that negativity to a bright-eyed hope that Japan desperately needs. 'To rescue, to defeat,' you abandoned that mantra completely.

"I remember watching you during the Sports Festival, having the same gusto as Deku had. I had hope, now it's replaced by a state of utter revulsion. You rely on others for your strength when it should be the people of Japan, you believe your life has meaning extraneous to heroism, you believe there exists a grand concept that's worth more than valor, and you corrupt the ideals of altruism and self-sacrifice.

"Worst of all: you doubt All Might's honor and legacy. You are like the other children at your age, worshipping Stain, the League of Villains, while condemning the true Heroes who are maintaining peace at their own expense. You are nothing but an empowered, spoiled child whose vices are his own privileges.

"As the owner of an Origin-type Quirk, you have no other destiny than the one you seek. No other lies ahead. Although you're cowardly, Japan would benefit much from you."

…

I hate this.

"Why would I sacrifice my life for you?"

"Intolerable." Edgeshot kicks me in the side. I'm pushed against a tree. "Five seconds."

"Eyuh—! I don't want this! I-I don't want this—!"

"Insufferable." He takes me by the neck and slams me into the trunk, the sharp, jagged wood prodding at my back, digging into my fresh wounds. "You're acting like an infant. What do you want exactly, Armory?"

I gasp.

"Once we return home, I'll take you to see the world. Korea, China, India, anywhere you want. You can do whatever you want with your life, I'll be there."

"Little one, I know your life shouldn't be confined to your home. Soon, you'll rule over yourself. Though you should always give to the world, give to yourself most of all."

"Haah…"

"Hmm, this? It's nothing. Only a brochure to U.A. High School, the best Hero School in the country. I know you don't like fighting, but it's necessary. So that's why I'll fight, especially for you.

"So don't worry, alright? You'll never have to fight, not on my watch. I want you to be happy and smile lots, okay?"

"Hah… Hah…"

I'm crying.

"Saranghae!"

"I love ya, little guy!"

"This world may be too much, yet there's you. I think that's enough."

"I…" I shut my eyes. "...I want my family."

Without sympathy or even pity, Edgeshot says, "A Pro Hero never needs a family."

…

…

…

For the rest of the night, he teaches me to forget. I never learned.

Author's Notes

ouch.

I remember when DoS was light-hearted and fun, then it turns into a crapshoot. The main focus of this chapter is not on 1-B or 1-A, but rather on the two Origin-type users that the Hero Public Safety Commission set their sights on. In the first scene with Sasaki, it only goes to push the idea that Origin-types are a massive deal where even international organizations are keeping track. (Also me trying to rope in previous plot threads over and over.) The rest of the chapter is purely Sanji's POV with a break to see how the HPSC officials are doing. Overall, this served to show a few purposes: 1. Develop the relationship between Deku and Sanji more; 2. Showcase just how absurd Edgeshot is; 3. Foreshadow.

For the first thing, I gotta say something: man it's hard to write Deku. I have to write a shounen protagonist within a work that's way too mature for the shounen genre, which leads to the contrast you see here. Sanji has pretty much moved away from what he was in the past: a dude who wants to be as selfless as possible. At his core, I always intended for him to derive self-fulfillment due to his connections with other people. In a trope-y sense, his friends are his power. Thus, his personality should reflect it. As the world treated him horribly, his appeal to fight for it weakens but on the other hand, his appeal to fight for the people he loves is that much strengthened. The end result is the same either way, but simply the ambitions he has that guides him. With Deku, his biggest pride is, of course, being a Pro Hero. Everything he sees is a means to achieve that goal. I'd argue that this makes him self-centered. His desire for being the best Pro Hero causes him to focus on himself and his own journey. Ironically enough, him and Sanji shared the same contradiction earlier: a yearning to be selfless so that's all they can think about—themselves.

While Sanji is more practical than Deku, Deku is an ambitious, yet dogmatic character. Heroism, at the moment, is all he has, so naturally, anything that challenges that belief is something he'll adamantly argue. It ultimately gives him a one-track mind where it leads up to a moment where I think it's particularly uncomfortable: Deku trying to comfort Sanji. Deku tried to appeal to him by talking about his own journey, and since we're in Sanji's eyes, hopefully I made him sound uncomfortable. Deku talks from his own experiences and his current story is the only experiences he has, so it plays a part in creating a rift between the two of them. A wedge will further be driven a wedge by Edgeshot, because of course he does.

Edgeshot is a complete psychopath, and I'm sorry if you guys like him before I changed his canon personality. He becomes an unremorseful Hero obsessed with generating eternal peace for Japan, viewing the two boys as the conduits to achieve that lofty goal. While one may be enthusiastic to do it, the other isn't. Boy, he isn't. Edgeshot (and the President) are so absurdly determined to protect Japan that literally everyone else around them is constantly going, "What in the actual fuck is wrong with you?" However, none of them can do anything about it. What can they do? The Japanese government itself hasn't intervened, so let's say we replace the HPSC. Do the characters want to entrust their fate in the hands of politicians? Absolutely not. All Might is irreplaceable, so he must have some major sway in the political culture? Well, All Might has zero experience in that realm. And as we have two Origin-types as we speak, All Might suddenly became replaceable. In the end, Sanji and the gang have to resign themselves to whatever the HPSC wants and pray that it won't be horrible.

Yet Edgeshot despises Sanji. From the exercises with the GMs, to his personal nightly exercise, Sanji is nothing but a selfish brat who refuses to accept his responsibility. His fate is to be the greatest Pro Hero that ever lived, protecting Japan at the expense of himself; however, self-sacrifice is not something he's willing to fight for. The world thrown him down, and thanks to 1-B, he was willing to forget. Until now, where references are made again, and the supposed superiors that Sanji was bound to work for is abusing him. It's not unreasonable that he isn't willing to fight for the HPSC, not after that. With his Quirk bound to be forced out of him, all he can think about is his family, his biological family who he's forced to remember.

They loved him. Wonder what information they have in store? On a completely unrelated note...

...Sage? Yay, she's introduced. She was referenced in Ayuko's scene in the future. She's the center of Project Sage, an eccentric and childish prodigy. She'll be an important character for future arcs (if I ever get around to writing them).

Anyway, I think that's everything I got. I didn't cover all of the bases but this should be adequate enough.

Writing go brr.