Despite his fairly odd appearance, Hanta Sero had a habit of fading into the background. He was no Koda, but compared to some of the explosive personalities in his class, it was only natural that a lot of his classmates would sometimes forget about him. It was nothing Hanta was too broken up about, but it did mean that he had aspects of who he was that his friends never really noticed. One, for example, was that he enjoyed jogging around the campus in the early morning.

His mother had been a cross-country runner before he was born, and she'd passed her love for post-dawn exercise to her son. Back before the dorm situation, he'd done a full hour jog, making turns where he felt like while keeping track of the path so he knew how to easily get back home. Now that he lived at UA, he was restricted to the perimeter of the school. It kept him in the kind of shape that was useful for his Quirk, since he was definitely on-track to be the kind of hero whose mobility was a major asset.

But more than that, Hanta just enjoyed the time he could spend by himself, letting his mind go where it wanted, and taking in the crisp air, still unheated by the sun's gaze, and the sounds the world waking up to a new day. This particular morning, his mind kept going back to the recent test. His team, lead by Momo, had been tasked in their simulation with finding the hideout of a gang of villains called The Rogues, and taking many into custody as possible. They'd actually been able to find the secret base pretty well, thanks to Koda using wildlife to get as much intel as possible.

It was when they tried entering the place that things got messy. They'd been careless, and the place was filled with traps. Exploding marbles, flowers that sprayed acid, invisible glue, it was all silly stuff, but it as they continued they'd started getting a hang on the twisted logic behind them. Which was why when they were suddenly trapped inside a mirror, with now way of escape, they lost their test out of nowhere. They still hadn't gotten their detailed feedback, but Mr. Aizawa had told them they should have researched their assigned foes more before going in, as knowing what the Trickster and Mirror Master could do would have helped them quite a bit in avoiding capture.

Almost back to the dorm, Hanta let out a sigh. He felt back for Momo. In so many ways, she was top of their class, and had all the makings of a great hero. But their loss in the combat exam really shook her confidence, and they'd all felt like she was rushing through the investigation test. He wanted to try and give her a pep talk, but he was honestly no good with talking to pretty girls. Which made his assigned partner, who he noticed was waiting outside the dorm, more than a little difficult. "Morning, Sero!" she called, waving a pale arm at him.

[ANTONIA MONETTI/ARGENT! HER QUIRK: PLASMA! SHE CAN IONIZE THE AIR INTO A SILVER PLASMA THAT ONLY SHE CAN CONTROL! SHE CAN USE IT TO DEFEND AGAINST EVEN THE STRONGEST ENEMY ATTACKS, STRIKE BACK AT HER OPPONENT'S, OR EVEN MAKE ART WITH IT! SHE'S WON SIX DIFFERENT ART PROJECTS BACK AT TITAN'S ACADEMY USING HER QUIRK!]

Doing his best to look in a better mood than he felt, Hanta smiled and waved back as he reached her. "Hey, Nia." That was what she preferred to be called. In the last week, they actually hadn't spent a ton of time together. Part of that was clearly from Hanta's shyness around the cute girl, but Nia seemed to enjoy spending time with people from her class, which made sense to him. But even when they did spend time together, she felt...odd. "What are you doing up so early? Class doesn't start for another few hours."

For just a second, Hanta could have sworn that Nia flinched at the question, but otherwise she still looked pretty happy to see him. "Just couldn't sleep. How was your jog?" From there they made a little small talk as they entered the heated interior of the dorm building's common room. In most ways, Nia was just a really cute teenage girl, with a gorgeous face and a lithe build. What gave her an exotic edge was her complexion, so unearthly pale is was basically as white as someone could imagine, which clashed with her pitch black hair and the dark clothes she was usually wearing.

It was while she was telling him about something that had happened recently to Karen Beecher that he noticed the dark bags under her eyes. She clearly hadn't been lying about her difficulties sleeping. Thinking back on it, he went over some of the things he'd been noticing. She yawned a lot, even if she tried to hide them, and was clearly tired despite her perky attitude. Sometimes he noticed her just kind of zone out, and when she did, he felt like some imperceptible sadness touched her expression. Once she'd finished her story, Hanta decided to go for it. "Hey, Nia, are you doing okay?"

"Hmm?" she asked, and for a moment he could see inner conflict in her eyes, like she wasn't sure what to do next, how to respond to his question. But then she gave him a smile with a little too much cheer to it. "Oh, I'm fine Sero. Actually, I have to go get ready for class, see you later!" With that, she dashed away. Hanta didn't really buy her answer, it felt like an excuse to ditch the conversation, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it. If she didn't want to tell him, that was her business. And who knows? Maybe he was just reading too much into things.

When Virgil Hawkins heard the crying from through the door, he knew he'd been right. He and his assigned partner, Momo Yaoyarozu, had plans to meet up after class that day, but when she was a no show, he went out to look for her. She'd been in a funk for a while now, and it was getting worse, not better. After a bit of thinking, his first guess on where she'd turn up was the room they'd done the simulated tests in two days before, and Virgil had been right. Instead of just barging in, he knocked first. "...yes?" came Momo's voice.

Taking that as a sign he could enter, he opened the door and found her sitting at a desk, face still a little splotchy from crying. Virgil was happy his dad has pressed upon him the importance of carrying a handkerchief wherever he went, because it gave him the opportunity to offer her a white cloth from his pocket after he'd approached her. "Talk to me, Momo. What's going on?" He had more than a few guesses on what was making her upset, but he didn't want to presume.

She took the handkerchief gratefully and started cleaning up her tear streaks, her eyes gravitating to looking down at the desk top rather than at Virgil. "I feel like I'm failing my team...and myself too." Rather than say anything to that, Virgil let her have more time to elaborate, which she used. "I was admitted to UA by recommendation, but all year long I've had such difficulties putting my skills to practice in the field. At the Sports Festival, during the summer training camp, and now with our team assignments. It's because of me we failed the investigation simulation, and it's my fault we lost in the first round of combat examinations."

Momo finished that last sentence with a huff of disappointed air, and Virgil felt it was time to step in. "Momo, my team last in the first round too. We were both against tough teams, and we did our best." Then, he shrugged. "So what if you didn't nail your first ever simulation? No one in our school did. We're all just more used to them now. From everything I've seen, your only problem is confidence."

Despite his best hopes, Virgil's words seemed to fall on deaf ears. "You don't understand, Virgil," she said, tears welling up in her eyes again. "It feels like...my best isn't enough. So many of my classmates are pushing so far, doing so well. And I feel like I'm miles behind them, that there's no way I can make up that difference." Without her realizing it, Momo's words lit a fire in Virgil.

"That isn't your problem. It's UA's." Clenching his jaw a little in anger, he felt he might as well tell her how he felt about all of this. "They keep pressing this on you. 'Plus Ultra! Plus Ultra!' Man, screw Plus Ultra!" That got her attention, and he didn't stop. "Taking pride in what you do is a good thing, but pushing yourself to unhealthy extremes to get results is a terrible way of doing things. I bet one of those people you were talking about, who seems miles ahead of you, is Midoriya, right?" Momo nodded her head. "Have you ever looked at that kid? At his scars? I've heard about all the bones he's broken so far this year."

That made Momo scowl, the first time she'd ever looked at Virgil with anything like disapproval. "That's not fair, Virgil. His Quirk is was too powerful for his body, but he's gotten better at using it now, he hasn't hurt himself in a while." Shaking his head, Virgil used his Quirk to send out a quick zap of electricity into his pocket, magnetizing his phone to pull it out of his jeans and into his open hand.

[VIRGIL HAWKINS/STATIC! HIS QUIRK: STATIC SHOCK! VIRGIL'S BODY TURNS SOME OF HIS ENERGY INTO ELECTRICITY, WHICH HE CAN SHOOT OUT WITH WAY BETTER CONTROL AND DIRECTION THAN POOR KAMINARI! IT'S NOT AS STRONG, BUT IT HAS THE UPSIDE OF BEING ABLE TO MAGNETIZE METAL OBJECTS SO HE CAN MOVE THEM AROUND AT WILL! IT'S A GOOD THING HE GOT A SPECIAL SUPPORT ITEM PHONE THAT DOESN'T GET WIPED EVERY TIME HE ZAPS IT!]

"It's not just his Quirk. That kid lives Plus Ultra. He's probably going to be a great hero, but he's also probably going to die before he hits thirty." Those words hit Momo hard, and Virgil chose then to show her a picture on his phone. "This is my Dad. I love him. He's been working blue collar jobs his entire life, and he puts in more hours than anyone else, always goes above and beyond. Now, he needs to take high-end painkillers for his back problems, and he has to use a cane to walk around.

"I'm not the top of my class, but I'm never at the bottom either. I do my best, and I try to make sure my team does theirs too. But shouldn't be pushing ourselves to crazy extremes. We're training for a job, an important one, and we won't be able to save people if we're not physically and mentally in our best place." Virgil slipped his phone into his pocket and got up to leave. "It's your life, Momo, and it's up to you on how you want to live it. It might sound selfish, but you need to consider yourself sometimes, and the expectations you're putting on yourself aren't helping."

He was leaving the room when she spoke up, real fire in her voice. "I'm sorry about what happened to your father, Virgil. But...I believe in Plus Ultra. Maybe it does take its toll on us sometimes, but...I can't just be happy with where I am. I need to strive to be better. Because that will make me a better hero, and a better person." Without turning around, Virgil shrugged and left the room. He'd done what he could, it was up to Momo if she actually took his words to heart or not.