Rule #3a: Never be unreachable

Besides the ultimate move training that both first year classes were involved in, other intense training situations were employed in the weeks leading up to the Provisional Hero Licence exam such as the rescue training they were doing today. "…Here's a useful tip about the big exam" Aizawa lectured as he slouched over the pedestal, "Most years you have to rescue someone from a pretend disaster, which can be difficult. So let's prepare now"

The board flared to life behind him, showing two sets of teams in which the class had been split into for the exercise. With Mineta out sick—or supposedly sick (no one was brave enough to go into his room and check)—there was an uneven number of people, so one person had been left out as an alternate. "You'll be split into two teams of ten and eight, each group will complete a training exercise together. The extra person will the alternate; their role will be to play back-up should the need arise" Aizawa explained tiredly. That person just so happened to be Toru.

"It looks like I'm on Team A" Iida commented as his eyes ran through the two lists.

"Iida?" Ochako chirped, "And Tsu? We got this in the bag! I can't wait!"

"We'll just have to do our best, ribbit" Asui chimed in.

"We'll kill this thing!" Kaminari fist-pumped with Kirishima who sat in the row behind him.

"Oh! We're all over it!" Kirishima agreed.

"Teamwork is incredibly important for our training!" Yaoyorozu chirped up from the back, "I'm looking forward to working with you, Todoroki & Tokoyami!"

"Sure" Todoroki nodded.

"Together we will prevail" Tokoyami agreed ominously.

"Ugh!" Bakugou growled, predictably glaring at a startled Midoriya who sat behind him. "I'm on the same team as that damn nerd?!"

"Now then" Aizawa cut through the rest of the mindless chatter, "You'll be completing the exercise immediately; everyone go change into your costumes and regroup at Ground Beta"


Seated atop a large piece of rubble that sat off to the side go training Ground Beta not too far from Recovery Girl & Aizawa, Toru sat all dolled up in her latest hero costume and eavesdropped on her peers as Team A strategised on what they would do. Even though she was itching to join them, Toru was unable to do so just yet. As the alternate, Toru was barred from interacting with the original rescuers for a certain period of time; but as soon as her time limit was up everything was fair game. Currently, Yaoyorozu had pulled up a holographic map of the crumbling mall in which their current lesson was to take place.

"…Two hours ago, a fire broke out on the bottom floor of a large underground shopping mall" Yaoyorozu explained as she showed everyone the blueprint of the building, "Fortunately, the blaze was extinguished and most of the people present were evacuated. However, we have received word that somewhere inside of this building there is still one stranded person who needs out assistance"

"Our mission is to rescue that citizen as quickly and as safely as possible!" Decreed Iida, "For our purposes, the citizen will be a training dummy"

"The damage from the fire has taken out the underground powerlines, but lucky a back-up generator is working"

"That's good" Ochako sighed in relief. "Things'll be a lot easier if the lights stay on"

"This boils down to a race against the clock" Tokoyami interjected, "I propose we split into teams—"

"—Hey, this is weird" Midoriya interjected as he glanced up from his phone. "I'm not getting any kind of phone signal out here"

"Me neither" Kaminari chimed in.

"This thing might as well be dead!" Kirishima added as both boys checked their own phones.

"I'm guessing it's not a coincidence that the most common form of communication is out for this exercise" Midoriya shrugged.

"If that's how it is, then we'll need a rendezvous point" Todoroki pointed out as he pocketed his phone. "As well as a time to meet up there"

"This mall has six underground floors" Asui pointed out as she scanned the blueprint in Yaoyorozu's hands. "What if we go down the central stairwell and search the first level—B1—in teams? We can meet back at the stairs ten minutes later and then continue to sweep each floor until we find the person who needs to be rescued"

"Yes!" Ochako agreed, "That's a great idea, Tsu!"

"I agree!" Midoriya added, before he turned to the fiery blonde stalking towards the building with his perpetual scowl engraved on his features. "Hey, where are you going, Kacchan?"

"Where do you think?" Bakugou scowled over his shoulder. "I'm gonna track down the stupid citizen who didn't escape in time" Toru winced at his harsh words, which although predictable, were starting to make more and more sense as to why the villains had nabbed him. What kind of hero talked like that?

"Wait a minute, Bakugou!" Iida scolded, "Going off on your own ruins our co-operative effort; we should do as Asui proposes"

"I told you to call me Tsu!" Asui reminded.

"Eh…yes! As Tsu suggests!" Iida amended.

"You idiots are the ones saying that the search is a race against time! I'll find this dummy while you're still trying to figure out what to do! That's the real difference between you and me"

"No—wait! Don't—!" Midoriya protested to no avail.

"Yeah, wait up man!" Kirishima agreed as he and Kaminari started after the explosive blonde , "It's dangerous to go alone! I'll go with you!"

"Yeah! I guess we better go with them!" Kaminari added with a put-upon sigh and arms crossed behind his head.

"You guys—we need some kind of plan!" Midoriya tried again.

"We're good" Kirishima called back over his shoulder, "Just meet us at the stairs in ten!"

"We'll make sure that Bakugou's with us" Kaminari waved back, "Probably"

"Right, sure, okay…" Midoriya stumbled, "Be careful in there"

"Wow" Ochako sighed, "Bakugou never changes, does he?"

"So self-centred!" Added Tokoyami as they watched the trio disappear into the bowels of the building.

"Uh, anyway—" Iida floundered for a moment as he tried to regain control of the situation. Even from where she was sitting, Toru could just imagine that the little vein on the side of his neck was bulging at Bakugou's predictable disobedience. "—The clock is ticking! Let's split up and begin our searches as well!"

"I've been thinking about what Quirks will compliment each other" Yaoyorozu piped up. "We can group Midoriya, Uraraka & Asui and Todoroki with Tokoyami. If everyone agrees with that, then Iida and I will make up the final pairing"

That's clever. Toru cocked her head as she mused, eyes trailing over each of the smaller teams. Each group is balanced by their Quirks abilities. Asui is able to navigate all terrain, Ochako's zero gravity will be useful in case of any blockages or whatnot and Midoriya's strength will help in the rescue attempt. The trio remained stationed outside of the building as the two girls tried to rouse Midoriya from his analytic ramblings.

Toru's gaze drifted from the trio to the two class representatives as they wished the others good luck and disappeared into the dark. The combination of Iida's speed and Yaoyorozu's ability to manifest items will undoubtedly result in some kind of genius moment. Her eyes tracked from the class representatives to the last pair as they followed after Iida and Yaoyorozu as Midoriya continued to ramble as he was known to do. And then there's the those two: Tokoyami's Dark Shadow, who works best in the dark—he'll do well, I reckon—if Tokoyami can control him. And Todoroki's hot 'n cold will be extremely helpful in a disaster area—for mostly structural things, I'd say.

Even those boneheaded three are well-suited. Toru bit her lip in thought as her eyes then turned to the dark opening in which Bakugou, Kirishima and Kaminari had already disappeared into. With Kirishima as the go-between between the two blondes and his hardening Quirk, he will be useful in not only wrangling Bakugou, but the citizen as well. Kaminari's Quirk will be useful if the power inside the building were to fail and with Bakugou's explosive nature…well, it'll likely cause some kind of problem(s) but, he'll still help to motivate his teammates (probably without meaning to). So I s'pose that's something—the morale of the rescuers is just as important, afterall.


Lounging atop the piece of rubble that Toru had selected as her vantage point, she knew that she should be coming up with strategies on what she could do when she finally joined the exercise; but all she ended up doing was stare up at the clouds as she tried to find different shapes in their fluffiness. Recovery Girl and Aizawa stood not too far off to the side with several small holographic screens lit up in front of them. It appeared that the whatever surveillance they had within the building was something outside of the original building's infrastructure, as it easily captured the movements and actions over her peers. Although the crackling audio left a lot to be desired, but you couldn't have everything she supposed.

From this distance, Toru could just barely make out the brightly coloured suits of her classmates in the dimly lit building if she tilted her head at just the right angle. Of course as soon as Aizawa noticed what she was doing, he moved the screens away from her view so she couldn't cheat…Could you even cheat on a lesson like this? Turning back to the cloudy blue sky, she wondered what this lesson held in store for them as her legs swung idly back and forth above the ground. What would go wrong this time? Because whenever they left the classroom, something was bound to go wrong, it's just the way things were. Are we cursed? She wondered. It would make sense, I guess. There's a lot of next generation heroes in our class—a lot of money too—old & new—People'll have been hurt for less. I've hurt people for less. I wonder what that makes me? The hero or the villain?

Soon enough, Toru was brought out of her wandering thoughts by the ground rolling beneath her. Jerking upright, she watched on in horror as the building her peers had disappeared into crumbled into dust, locking them inside with no way out. This lesson had just turned in to the real deal. Oh shit!

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! CRASH! THUMP!

The sounds of the building crumbling within set Toru's hair on edge, littering her skin with goosebumps as she listened to the situation get so much worse. Rushing to the edge of the new sinkhole, she peered down into the dark with violet eyes as she tried to make out how bad things really were. She sent a worried look towards a grumbling Aizawa and a worried Recovery Girl, who had to know that even this simple exercise would inevitably fall into disaster (their class was good at making mountains out of molehills). Even though Toru knew that her time limit wasn't up yet, she (fruitlessly) hoped that they would waylay that rule so she could go and help her classmates. Her fingers clenched into the material of her costume as she silently implored them to let her go.

In the end, the answer came to them in the form of Ochako, Yaoyorozu and Asui gently floating up through the damaged building with Iida strapped into a stretcher and a brace placed around his head, locking his unconscious form in place. Leaning precariously over the edge, Toru felt her heart quicken as their voices reached her. "…Get Iida to Recovery Girl right away" Ordered Yaoyorozu. "Asui, please go along with them and report to Aizawa-Sensei. I'll stay here and make the rope ladder"

"Are you the only ones who were able to escape?" Aizawa called out as the three girls continued to ascend.

"Aizawa-Sensei!" Ochako gasped in relief when all three glanced down at the call. "Recovery Girl!"

BOOM! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! CRASH!

"Was that…another collapse?" Asui turned as the sound of the building crumbling further, reached them.

"No, wait" Toru shook her head as she shared the same sentiment. "It sounded more like an explosion. But what could…?"

"It couldn't be, could it?" The frog girl turned to her as she and the others moved back to the surface where it was safer.

"Bakugou?" Toru knotted her brows in thought as Recovery Girl set about healing Iida, "It certainly sounds like something he'd do"

"But after the first collapse, ribbit?"

"He might not even have known about the first one, if they got too far, that is"

"—Wait!" Off to the side, Ochako and Yaoyorozu appeared to be laying into Aizawa with rather blatant disbelief. "So you're not going to save them? How can you leave them down there, Aizawa-Sensei?!"

"Could the collapse of the underground been—?" Yaoyorozu began.

"—Within the expected parameters of the exercise?" Aizawa interjected. "Just think for a minute, if you can't get pass a simple crisis like this one then it's unlikely you'll pass the exam"

"Sure but, Iida got hurt down there!" Ochako retorted. "Our other classmates might be trapped and need help right now!"

"In that case, they're no longer heroes. They're victims in need of assistance, now. So who will rescue them?"

"…I'll get the rope ladder ready!" Yaoyorozu spun on her heel, racing back towards the crumbling building.

"I can help too!" Ochako added.

"Ribbit!" Agreed Asui.

"Right!" Toru nodded, following after the trio as they hurried to save their friends.