Broken Heart Foundation (SYOC)

by LordMammon

Far into the future, for those who have had everything ripped away from them, the Broken Heart Foundation is there to put the pieces of your shattered heart back together again. For one reason, and one reason only, no one is going to fix it for you. (SYOC closed)

3. Chapter 3

End of Heartache

Kagekatsu didn't really know what to think of this place. It was so much more different compared to what he was usually used to. Granted, most of his recent time alive had been spent in a cell that can barely be considered humane by any stretch of the definition. So really, anything was different as he shuffled about the place, unsure of where to actually go.

The Foundation was a lot bigger than he had expected. He didn't really know what he was expecting with regards to that either, to be honest. Maybe it was the fact that the business card was so crappy, and it was run by a guy with a damned vampire quirk, which made him believe that he was about to walk into a place that was tantamount to monolithic shithole with muck strewing every corner and unscrupulous "teachers" trying to "fix" him by giving him all manner of "enhancers".

When he had been trucked up, because of course he still wasn't allowed to walk around under his own free will, his wishes be damned, he just about saw the building come into distance throw one of the few windows he was allowed to look out of. It was a grand, offensively clean white colour. It looked like it sprawled for miles on end despite the fact it was barely large, or anywhere close to all those Hero schools he had seen in pamphlets or videos when he was younger. There didn't seem to be that many windows, save for a few that seemed to dot what appeared to be the top floor. If it wasn't for its offensive size and sheen, Kagekatsu would've just written it off as some sterile old waste of money that no one used.

Instead, he found himself unceremoniously dumped knee first by his "handlers", that term really grinded his gears every time he heard it, in puddle of mud right at the front door the place.

'Off to a great fucking start…' The fox boy sneered as he climbed back to his feet, rubbing off some of the mud he had found now seeped into his clothes. It wasn't a getup he used to if he was being perfectly honest.

The sorry excuse for a prison that had housed him these past few years had apparently dumped his usual attire, so he was giving the holdover of a shitty black and blue t-shirt that had more holes than actual fabric. A pair of similarly blue and black trousers that shared the same shredded characteristics as the shirt just barely protected him from getting any mud on his actual person. At least it allowed his tail to breathe. The shoes, following the regimented colour scheme, thankfully didn't have such issues. Apart from that, he was at least happy they allowed him to keep his earrings, the red diamonds glinting in the light as he pushed his braided hair back away from out of his face and let if fall down to his mid back.

Having cleaned himself up, or at least having attempted to so, he took another look at the steel front door before him. It looked rather out of place on the rest of the white building, but still seemed as sterile as the rest of it. Heaving a sigh as he gave one final dust down of himself, Kagekatsu pulled the door open, and no, anyone who said he struggled to do so clearly hadn't felt how heavy the damn thing was. It wasn't that he was too scrawny and had no muscle mass, thank you very much.

Inside was just as white and bland as the rest of the whole damn structure, it was almost as if the person who designed this place was obsessed with the colour. It must've been one hell of a nightmare to keep clean as well, any dust or splash of dirt, like Kagekatsu's still muddy feet, probably would've sent your average OCD person flying up the walls in anger.

The ceiling was also almost offensively tall, the floor above it being pinprick small in perspective. Really, he needed to find out whoever the architect was. This place was clearly just a ticking time bomb of structural failures waiting to happen. Kagekatsu, not exactly the greatest architect, still had years of experiences in scouring buildings of similar standing. There was a good reason why he survived in that hell of a group for so long, after all.

What he was really focusing on, though, was the stunning emptiness of the place. There was nothing. It was barren for miles on end. About the only thing that stood between him, and the other side was a man that looked like he couldn't be the least bit interested in the fox boy that was slowly making his way towards him.

The man in question, much more enraptured by the concept of what was under his black nails, was an off-black, double-breasted, military-style jacket with a golden belt wrapped around it for some god forsaken reason. There was a red half cape going down his shoulders with quilted sleeves that contained small shinning diamonds in them, and finally, his trousers were an off black with a vertical red stripe whilst his teal dress shirt poked out underneath. His stark white hair, meanwhile, fell haphazardly down to his chin and piercing red, shifting eyes at last dragged themselves to regard Kagekatsu. "What do yooooooooooouuuuuuu wantttttttttt?" The man spoke, drawing out his words in seemingly random places as his eyes trailed back to his nails.

Stumbling about mentally for the correct course of action, Kagekatsu produced the card that vampire slid to him just over a day ago. "Um… I am in the right place, aren't I?" Receiving an incredulous stare at the card and then himself, the black-haired fox boy fumbled the card back into his pocket and took another quick scan of the place. He hadn't been set up, had he?

The more he thought about it, though, the more it made sense.

The more it made sense that the whole thing at the prison was just a sick joke being played on him.

The more it made sense that he would never truly be free from them. How they would chase him down and strangle him until he coughed up blood from his mouth.

The more it made sense that he was just another one of those fucking chess pieces that made that asshole go fucking ecstatic whenever he put them in checkmate. That asshole wanted to "live forever", and there was no doubt in Kagekatsu's mind that it was solely to fuck over people from beyond the grave as he was burning in hell.

The mor-.

"Oi, kid, it'd be muchhhhhhhhhhhhhh appreciated if you didn't bleed all over the floor." The man spoke, his voice far less bored as the barest face of concern bore itself out in public. Whether that was concern for Kagekatsu, who was spraying decent amounts of blood from his head where his claws had been jammed in, or the previously clean floor being dyed the deepest shade of crimson from the trickles, it wasn't too clear.

Still, it was enough to snap the golden eyed male out of his trance. Kagekatsu going to reflexively strike himself in the face for once again falling into that pathetic state, only to find the man holding his fist back. "You'reeeeeeeeeeee notttttttttt doinggggggggggg that, kid."

Staring at the other for a few brief moments, Kagekatsu dropped his fist and transitioned to placing an open palm on his self-inflicted wound in order to stop the bleeding. "I'm fucking nineteen, asshole…" He mumbled, still too focused on his own wound to actively pay attention to the other man. "Don't blame me…"

"It's pretty childish to have a fit out of nothing." The man droned, previous exaggeration of words dropping out as he took hold of Kagekatsu's other arm and dragged the scrawny teen to the other side of the room from the entrance. "Look, I don't care who the hell you are, or why the hell you're so late, but the one thing you do not do the second you walk through these doors is to do that."

Knocking three times against the wall with his bare elbow, the seeming dead end shuttled to life and peeled away to reveal another stainless-steel door, much like the one outside as the man dragged and dumped Kagekatsu in front of it. "Uh… What?" He murmured, not really gathering all the details together as he was still a bit delirious from his trance moments earlier.

"Through the door, down the lift, I'll see you on the other side eventually." Was the man's reply, a voice growing ever distant as he barrelled the scrawny fox boy through the door and slammed it on the other side. The sound of whirring occurring as everything stitched itself back together.

Okay, he was definitely in the right place if it had an entrance that was just as fucking cryptic as that. He didn't really appreciate being manhandled, as well. However, as he stared at the lift (?) before him, the same heart that was on the card painted over it in a way that actually looked competent, he took a deep breath.

This was the moment of truth, his first step to "Fixing his shattered heart" as had been so eloquently put to him. The whole lift was made out of glass, which again seemed like it was an accident waiting to happen. Especially if anyone decided to break in, this whole place, bar that cryptic as fuck entrance, seemed like it was wide ass open to attacks for anyone and their mouths.

The general journey, whilst smooth, seemed to take forever and ever. There was only one button on this thing, and of course the damn thing only went down because it wouldn't be like this place to go to where the actual building was. In fact, all he saw as it slowly descended was the earth that had been excavated in order to make this ass numbingly long travel. Honestly, he could've ordered a fucking drink and a meal, ate the whole thing, tipped the waiter more than the idiot was ever going to earn in his life, taken back his Goldie, and he still wouldn't have been anywhere closer to wherever the hell he was supposed to be.

It was still fucking going!

When he was finally spat out at the bottom floor, he had long tried his best to catch up on the sleep he had lost on that sorry excuse for a bed, so the actual layout of the place was still a barren mystery to him. For all he knew, it was probably just going to be another blank space of perpetual white in the greatest homage to a sensory deprivation chamber ever conceived. He still maintained the whole "I'm trying to sleep, don't fucking touch me" attitude even as he slinked his way against one of the many walls of the place.

Of course, that was a pretence that could only be kept up for the grand total of six seconds when he finally decided to take a crack and opened one of his eyes, the level of noise pounding his ear drums being the man reason, it felt like he was going to go deaf in that six second timeframe, which would actually be fairly impressive. However, he had no real time to be sarcastic about the whole situation. The asshole that suddenly decided that shouting as loud as he could into one of Kagekatsu's sensitive ears, who was smirking like he was king-shit or something, was about to have that smarmy ass grin wiped off of his face if he weren't careful.

"You doing alright there, sleeping beauty? I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" The asshole was tall, like, Jesus, he was tall. Kagekatsu had never considered himself anything more than average, and here was this guy standing at 6'4 and probably taller. Built like an athlete at that, his arms and legs looking more like they belonged on the body of a swimmer specifically. He could just tell getting hit by this guy was going to be like he was repeatedly run over by a truck. His hair was an inky kind black that contrasted the icy blue tips fell to the back of his neck where they were spiked up. Taking a glance away from the face, and those lazy yet somehow mischievous golden-brown eyes. His clothing seemed to give off this kind of weird military vibe, his black jeans, and green hooded jacket wouldn't be that out of place as the starting to DMP, however, the blue tank top and grey trainers did ruin that allusion a bit. Finally, as one took one more last look over, he noticed the pair of metallic dog tags slung around the other's neck.

"The interlude before your funeral, fuck face." Kagekatsu responded, if he wasn't already irritated by his whole arrival into this place, he was certainly already growing progressively more irritated by every second he was around this guy. He'd only said two things goddamn it!

"Ooh, aren't you a tough one, Pretty Boy?" The other male, his voice a strange mix of cocky and power, directed at Kagekatsu as he fluttered his eyelashes as if he were mocking the fox boy's longer than normal ones. "You got a name or somethin'? I'm killing to actually learn someone's damn name, no one in this place is any fun." The teen said, gesturing out to the other people that were either aimlessly wandering about the place or stuck to the wall, except for one girl who was also trying her best to start conversation. Really, this place was just as frigid as the walls were bleak.

"Kagekatsu Nakamura." Kagekatsu's reply came off as awfully curt, more so than he intend and he really didn't like the slight growth of the other's smirk as the words left his lips. "You know I have a thousand ways of making you eat anything you're about to say, it starts with making you eat your own tongue of course."

Laughing as he threw his hands up in mock surrender, the teen's smirk was in danger of falling off the side of his face "No need to get so edgy all of a sudden, Pretty Boy, we're all friends here, aren't we? Name's Arius Amilios, by the way. I can just tell we're going to get on like a house on fire."

"Preferably with you in it…" The fox boy sneered, preferably not wanting to spend any more time around this asshole but considering his options as he spied some more of the people in his general area, it wasn't like he had many better options. He very much wanted to stay as far away from the sideshow attraction with those two golden arms and a fucking mouth full of teeth that looked like it would rip his skin clean off.

Arius, tilting his head slightly, took note of the frantic twitching of Kagekatsu's tail, a direct contrast to the attitude the fox boy was portraying. "You scared or something? You ain't been with these freaks a minute and you're already pissing the bed, Jesus, I would hate to see you under actual pressure."

"Don't you have to be annoying somewhere else?" Kagekatsu bit back, wishing for anything, anyone, to come and elevate him from this utter dipshit that thought he was some kind of big shot. He could tell Arius was getting some kind of kick from getting under his skin so easily, however, Kagekatsu had never really considered himself to be the most emotionally mature person in the world, this was just par for the course at this point.

Luckily, though, for one of the only times in his godforsaken life, his silent cry of help was answered but a much louder, yet still somehow subdued, cry of pain. "Ow…" The very simple cry came from behind the pair of Kagekatsu and Arius, the warm baritone dripped with a kind of soft-spoken tone as a frankly humongous shadow loomed large over the pair of them. "Uh… Hey there?"

Turning around, Kagekatsu immediately balked as he forced his head up higher and higher to catch the new arrival's face. "Fuck me, you're massive." It was about the only thing he could get out before he found himself ass over tip on the ground.

Massive. This new arrival was the biggest person the fox boy had ever seen, and then there was Arius standing there and laughing his ass off like this was normal. This, this, he wanted to say person, was mythical! An imposing 7'6 and even bigger body to boot, his whole mutation affected damn near the entirety of his body, feathers were everywhere, there wasn't a single speck of traditional human skin on his body. Said body was extremely heavyset, with stout, strong limbs, a thick barrel chest, and an overall rounded shape, not one all too different from a bear. Those things looked like they could kill a man. A pair of large wings sprouted from his back; roughly as tall he already was. Notably, there seemed be some kind of scar going just over the top of his large orange eyes where his eyebrow should've been. His whole face, covered in a different scheme to those caramel brown feathers, looked kind of like your traditional Penguin. Mostly white with the occasional flecks of brown, only stopping as it got to around his navel. It was quite impressive, as well, that his clothes, as simple as they were, being a nice buttoned-down shirt and a clean pair of jeans, were a definite mark-up on Kagekatsu's.

"You alright there, Pretty Boy?" Came Arius' voice as the male tried to his best to attempt to pat the massive newcomer on the shoulder before electing for his back "You did good, big guy. You did good, I'd pay great money to see you do that again." Either Arius' sense of humour was non-existent, or he just was the physical manifestation of laughter, because there was no way he was still laughing his ass off.

Instead of following along with Arius, however, the newcomer walked over to Kagekatsu, the ground pounding and shaking as each of those heavy, bear-like legs come crashing down on the Foundation's floor. The comparably smaller hand was crushed without remorse as he was manhandled back to his feet. It was hard to read what the big ass guy's face, on the account of it being a mutated visage of an owl, but the voice quelled any lingering doubts. "Are you alright, Friend? I'm really sorry if I shocked you, I didn't mean to… My name's Fukuro Kumatobu, again, I hope everything's fine. Nothing hurts, right?"

Oh, wonderful, it was the gentle giant taken corporeal form. At least it made a change form the previous giant Kagekatsu had the displeasure of working with, his jaw still hurt from all that supposed training. Even if the well-being of his hand could be summed up as non-existent "That never happened, alright? I'm talking to you too, Fuckface."

"You don't have a pot to piss in nor a window to through it out of, Pretty Boy." Arius responded, throwing another lazy smirk Kagekatsu's way before he heard a crack and was suddenly face to face with Fukuro although the Owl's body had yet to turn. "Okay… I get the message. I mean, it's not unusual… But that's a messed-up image I wouldn't be getting out of my head anytime soon." The teen grumbled, avoiding staring at the other for as long as he could. It was that aversion to eye contact that led him to the being that had just entered the room like a whisper.

Compared to the mythically large Fukuro, the diminutive girl slinked about the room with a trained kind of movement. It was almost snake like. Standing at 5'1, she was comically dwarfed by all three of the males. Her skin was an unnatural chalk white, as if the blood had long stopped pumping in her body. Two messy white braids hung down her back and around her face with two ribbons being used as some form of tie, albeit not very successfully. Completely barefoot and with the monotonous beating of an ankle monitor, she moved carefully around the place, seeming to stare everyone she could see in the eye, adjusting that monocle of hers that sat over that grotesque scar covered half her face. If the clothes were that were left, it would be a bit of a let-down for they were remarkably unremarkable, a simple shirt and lengthened jacket combined with a scarf as white as her skin. However, what really caught the trio's attention, were the two… problem… Areas.

One just so happened to be the girl's left arm, that looked like a failed attempt at gene splicing. It was a large grotesque skeletal claw, a revolting mix of flesh and metal with bloody red eyes that looked more at home on a serial killer than someone's arm, and a mouth dripping with saliva and razor-sharp teeth in the middle.

That wasn't even the worst of it. Lashing about from side to side was a large, abnormal tail that was also made out of flesh and steel, probably an ever-grosser amalgamation of rotted flesh than before. At the very tip, where the disgusting nature should've been done and dusted, was a big menacing head with glowing red eyes and menacing looking teeth with guns on it. Guns. On the teeth. Frankly, Kagekatsu didn't want the first thing to do with her.

So, naturally, Arius decided that this was his prime moment to shine. He had been here the longest of anyone after all, the early bird catches the worm and frankly it would've been a great betrayal of what was instilled in him by his old man. He had to find some way to get entertainment out of a room of wet blanket, not like he had much to worry about anyway. "Hey there, you get lost on your way to a Loli convention? It's just a small distance away, it's only a short amount of time lost."

Hatred didn't even begin to describe the emotions rushing through Kagekatsu towards Arius as the girl's head and body slowly turned around, those magenta eyes, pupils crosses where they actually existed, regarded the offender with unspeakable malice. "What was that?" Her voice was unnaturally deep, almost guttural, and inhuman as it invaded their eardrums and beat them into submission.

The look of "Don't you fucking dare open your mouth again" from the others in the room, even those that had been carefully remaining silent up until this point, was never going to stop Arius. Not when he had someone to mess about with. "Little sort of hearing, are we?"

The girl lunged, bestial and feral with the intent to clearly separate at least one limb from Arius' body. Said male was remarkably unfussed by the whole situation, the girl was pretty fast, he'd give her that any day of the week, but even as he felt that mangled claw of a hand break the skin on his left arm, his smirk didn't drop an inch.

"Alright, everyone! I would stop fighting amongst yourselves if I were you!" A voice called out to them, snapping everyone to attention, including the ones that had likely fallen asleep during the tedious waiting period. "I believe that Niijima-sama gave you all strict orders not to do just what you did, I'm talking to you two in particular. I expect you to follow them to the tee, otherwise we can throw you back to where you came from with minimal effort. That's not something you want, is it?" Coming out of yet another cryptically hidden entrance, because why stop at just one, Subaru Fujinaga waltzed his way into the room to the incredulous stares of just about everyone bar a young girl that had been wandering around the room dressed head to toe in, who looked overjoyed by the walking clown's presence.

In fact, the young girl had been so overjoyed by his appearance, she immediately dropped her attempt to coerce everyone into conversation that she had been undertaking with little success and bolted towards him with the scream of "Dad!" Promptly knocking Subaru down to the ground as her entire body weight collapsed on top of him.

"Hehehehe, Yua dear, please don't do that again. My bones aren't as young as they used to be!" Subaru pouted, hefting the 5'5 girl off of him and placing her back on the ground. "Plus, if anything bad were to happen to me, beyond what Niijima-sama may think or say, we'd lose precious time together, you adorable little fluffball." He said, pressing against the covering of the hazmat suit and booping the green-eyed girl's nose. Said girl giggling all the while, not taking any notice to the incredulous stares that she was receiving from all of the people in the room.

"Dad? Oh good, nice to see nepotism is still a thing here." Arius commented, breaking in the hanging silence. For the first time, and hopefully the last, Kagekatsu had to agree with the asshole. Wasn't this supposed to be a place for people with "Broken Hearts"? If this little annoyance had her dad as one of the teachers, then how the hell was this going to be "fixing" her? That was just a set-up!

Clearing his throat, Subaru stood tall and proud as he spoke "Welcome, welcome, one and all! Aren't you all excited to be here?!" Cue absolutely no one but Yua showing any kind of excitement. Still, Subaru would never be deterred, it would be an insult to the Fujinaga way. "Well! I see we have a tough intake this time, usually we're full of people excited to finally be on the road to recovery! Really, you're all ruining the mood."

Needless to say, the vast majority of people in the room were not the least bit accepting of the walking clown's presence or words. In fact, it didn't take long for some of them to start running their mouths. "I was under the impression that we'd actually be taught by Heroes, what sideshow attraction did you walk out of? I'm not here to be led around by someone not worth my time." The voice in question happened to be monotonous but to pin it as disinterested would be a mischaracterisation. The person in question happened to be another male, roughly around 16 years old making him on the younger scale of the intake. He had a fairly standard appearance, if you discounted the 2-3 ft long red tail that was thrashing about behind him, and the extended canine teeth that jutted out of his lips. His clothing seemed to be of a very high quality, once more making Kagekatsu even more envious of the others, it consisted of a black silk shirt with a small white line that went down to the outer middle side of the sleeves under a dark green short sleeve shirt with a star in the outline of a circle. On the back, it then had the word "Avalon" spelled out in a technology-based font. Finally, he was wearing black jeans with a brown belt, and white tennis shoes with black laces and soles. Oh, and the two black horns that jutted out at a 45-degree angle before similarly jutting back in at another 45-degree angle as the sharp ridges on them almost merged into a crop of very straight pitch-black hair with some orange highlights in it. Said hair happened to be lengthy enough to cover both of his eyes, however, it naturally curved away at least spearing the left eye.

Subaru whirled around on his heel and stared the teen directly in those orange irises sunken in dark black sclera, running a finger up and down across the side of one of the multitude of files he had been given the previous day. "Hehehe, killing the mood dead are we, Mr Weaver?" The pink haired male sighed, and walked over to Weaver, full name Joseph Weaver, staring him down for an additional couple of seconds before talking out to the group at large again. "So typical. None of you know how to live in the moment do you? You should all be worshiping the ground I walk on." There was a slight twinkle in his eyes as he made to place a hand of the teen's shoulder, although all it turned out really to be was a tease. Subaru's body language, however, read of something much different than the joking look he was holding on his face.

There was an instant dislike from the vast majority of the people in the room. They might not have known an awful lot about their situation beyond what they were told during the initial pitch, but they certainly were learning that this guy was obviously too big for his boots. Being rubbed the wrong way seemed to be the order of the day, at this point.

However, that was until a certain vampire Quirk user decided to enter the room. He held a crushing presence, despite being comically dwarfed by some of the people he had "collected". None of them could explain it, but there was something that inherently and instinctively pulled their gazes towards their "Saviour", and thankfully away from Subaru. He was wearing a red and black waistcoat with white buttons and a grey shirt, with a long red tie tucked in behind it. His long grey sleeves were cuffed in white, with black buttons, and he had on a pair of white gloves. He also wore simple black trousers with a gold chain belt design and brown leather shoes. He completed the outfit with a high-collared, fur-lined black coat, the inside of which was grey diamond-patterned as it hung loosely around his shoulders. "Now then, shall we formally introduce ourselves? Naturally, it is the only right thing to do in situation, and I'd much rather have that than constantly sniping at each other. Isn't that right, Subaru?" Kyte, evidently, was not in the mood to waste any time. If the side eye he was giving the other was anything to by, the pink haired male had pushed one too many of his buttons already.

"I suppose you're correct, Niijima-sama." Subaru grumbled, now switching his attention to Yua as the young girl had been continuously pulling on his clothes since he had put her down for the first time.

"Thank you." Kyte's response was curt, taking one last glance over at Subaru before returning his gaze to the group at large. "First of all, I would like to welcome all of you into my Foundation. You've all gotten through the various rigorous standards that I like to implement when selecting the new intake. Of course, that means that some great tragedy has befallen you all and for that I am deeply sorry. However, you now have the chance to grow past and rebuild what was once shattered. Therefore, you shall have not only my assistance, but also the assistance of my staff. Of course, you all have already met Subaru whether for better or for worse. However, whilst he is not the only person under my employ, unfortunately he is all we have with us today."

"No hard feelings, Niijima-sama." Subaru replied, too busy dealing with Yua to really be paying attention to anything else in the world. The girl and her proclaimed "dad" seemingly in a world of their own.

Moving on swiftly, Kyte resolved to totally disregard the man next to him "Anyway, I'd like to introduce myself once again to you all. My name is Kyte Niijima, it may be too many years ago for any of you to remember but I am a former Pro-Hero. I worked my way through all the nay-sayers, especially given the stigma around my Quirk. If you are wondering why I said "former", I've simply decided that it's better for me to focus on my Foundation and that's all the group of you need to know."

A few eyes narrowed and a few eyebrows were raised, that was a very cryptic statement. It was almost threatening in a way, however, they knew they weren't best placed to be criticising the man who had given them this chance.

"Regardless, it's now time to decide which ones of you are useless trash and which ones of you are useful trash." Kyte proclaimed, still casually ignoring the looks he was receiving from the group at large. Maybe his language was a bit cryptic at first and a bit harsh now, but that's not his problem if they choose to interpret it that way. "Because now you're going to be doing a little assessment task for me. I want you to fight each other."

…

What?!

If his language emanated a sense of unease before, what he had just said made him seem like an absolute madman. Here they were, barely knowing each other for more than about ten minutes to an hour, a few of them only just having arrived whilst the rest of them were very much keeping themselves to themselves, and they were being asked to beat the hell out of each other. They didn't even know what the other's Quirks were!

"Shouldn't we be doing Quirk assessment instead?" Joseph's monotone voice interrupted. He wasn't dense, much like the majority, and quickly sniffed out the issue. All of them were aware of how this was supposed to go on a traditional level. Whenever a new group of budding Heroes had passed the horrific excuses for entrance exams, it was customary for there to be a kind of Quirk assessment when it came to the classes at large. It was a fact that there was no real entrance exam for the Foundation, although it did come with a pretty step requirement of childhood trauma so not having an exam per se was par for the course. However, they were still expecting something that would allow for them to get to know each other, not to turn the other into a smear.

Said apprehension reached another peak when Kyte continued "Your fights will be under Last Man Standing rules, one on one. I implore you all to use the environment to your advantage, because you have to incapacitate your opponent until a count of ten has passed before you can be declared the victor. Anything goes, and we're not legally responsible for what happens to you in there." He smirked, folding his arms against his chest "Consider this your baptism of fire, young ones, you're going to either come out with your shield or on it. I don't care what happens to you in there, the people trying to stop you out in that cruel world aren't going to care either. It's not my problem if you end up as a stain on someone's shoe. Any questions?"

"Uh, I have a question, why the hell are we beating each other up when we don't even know each other?" Kagekatsu said, tail standing up as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes. His tone definitely gave the impression he was more annoyed than scared, but if you asked Arius or any of the others standing around him the fact his body mutations were betraying him made his true feelings bare.

"Unless you somehow created a deep emotional bond with them in the past six seconds, I don't see what should stop you from turning them into swiss cheese." Kyte responded, not looking the least bit bothered by all the weird glances he was receiving. Humans had this weird compunction about themselves that apparently mindless brutality was a bad thing. Only when used incorrectly, in Kyte's humble opinion, was that statement even close to being remotely true.

That was when the resident head case of this intake, the one that had decided Arius' arm was forfeit for daring to speak to her, decided to raise her hand, her deep, gravelly voice still really unsettling and unnatural to everyone. "When you say… "Anything goes" … Do you really mean it?"

"Of course, I do." Kyte replied, motioning for Subaru to pull out something from another one of the myriads of hidden rooms. "The Foundation may not be the most technologically advanced place in the world, but we have our fair share of simulation equipment. Real enough for you to feel the impact of every building you're going to be flung into, every piece of debris that might be wacked over your head, every stray pipe or chair that might find their home on your back, and this isn't considering that I want you to use any means available to you with your Quirks. Anything you want to do, you can do. None of us in the staff will try to stop you until the ten count has been reached."

"Oh, this is going to be good~." Arius grinned, rubbing his hands together. This was going to be the perfect moment to show that everything he worked for up until this moment was going to pay off. Scanning his possible opponents made his grin stretch wider, there were too many great possibilities and no doubt they were going to be so much fun to play around with after the fact. The shortstack from earlier looked like a particularly feisty opponent.

On the contrary, despite his height that would befit that of a monster fighter, Fukuro seemed to be apprehensive. He pressed a couple of his talons against each other as he sighed, it just didn't feel right to be doing something like this already. It seemed almost barbaric to fling them at each other without so much as knowing each other's name.

Noticing this, Arius turned back to face the mutated male and once more tried to sling an arm around him. "Ah, don't me so nervous, Big guy! You'll do fine! Anyway, it's not like it's a fight to the death. It's just a friendly spar!"

No time was given for a response as Subaru re-entered the room, dragging a cartoonishly large wheel behind him. Each section of the yellow and black wheel had the names of everyone in the room scrawled across it, with the same quality penmanship that had best been described as chicken scrawl on the card Kyte had slid to them. "And before you get any ideas, just in case you try to weasel your way into a favourable match-up, we like to do things differently here. You all know as well as I do that opponents in your life will pop-up seemingly at random and completely unexpected, therefore, we got the good ol' wheel of selection to make sure that our scenarios are totally random! Nishishsihsi!"

A disgusted scoff from Joseph and an accusatory look from his boss weren't enough to dampen Subaru's joy as he slapped the front of the wheel, his eerie laughter never ending to the point where it seemed like words would be hard to come by.

"We took a look at all your files before we decided to call you all in today." Kyte said, realising the issue at hand "We know your Quirks, and we know your backgrounds, and now all that's left is for you to start taking things into your own hands. From the moment your name comes up all the lights go out."

Clapping as he finally finished laughing like a maniac, Subaru was ready. "Everyone, it's time to see which pair of you will be the first to turn each other into the equivalent of a smear on the ground! Remember, when there's a wheel, there's a way! Hehehehehe!" The walking clown of a "coordinator" cackled madly as he spun the comically oversized wheel. They were all carefully choosing to ignore the stupid wink he had given them all after his little bit of word play, the much more important fact of who they were about to throw hands with was all that mattered. Even if the whole idea of already beating the crap out of their fellow comrades straight away was a bit of anathema. Especially to those who may have had a slight dislike towards the concept. Dislike of course being used in a very liberal definition.

Watching it spin around made Kagekatsu tense especially hard. Knowing his luck, he was going to get selected first and he was going to go up against that giant only a few feet away from him. Or he was going to go against that psychopathic girl that had tried to maim Arius a few minutes earlier. Maybe even he was going against that other guy that looked like he had been through a war zone and then dumped into a horror movie, did he eat a fucking lawnmower or something? Teeth that sharp shouldn't be normal, even in a Quirked society!

And of course, of course! He was the first name that they landed upon. Welp! This was going to go just swimmingly! He should just offer himself up to get skewered right now because it was going to happen in about five minutes from now. He buried his head in his hands, there wasn't anything else he wanted more in this moment than for the ground to swallow him whole.

Another spin and seconds later he had his opponent, who would no doubt tear him a new one, which Subaru announced "Well, well, well! Looks like our first little battle is going to be between a one Nakamura Kagekatsu and a one Kinrō Hisumi!" Yep! That's it! Which one of the nutjobs was it? Who was going to be writing his obituary?

As he raised his head out of his hands, he was half expecting another monster to descend upon him, however, he was making sure he wasn't dreaming when he saw who had stepped up before him. Long blonde hair flowing to her shoulder blades as it curled to the tips and was moderately curtailed by a plastic blue headband, he might have never achieved interest in the fairer sex, but her body was somewhat curvy and had a relatively slim waist with broad shoulders and B-cup breasts. Her body as a whole looked very fit and lean. Whilst it was not overly muscular, she was well defined across her body, with her arms, back, and abs being decently cut from just a glance. There was a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and her canines were certainly more pronounced than average, but they were a god send compared to the Iron Jaw over one of the monsters he was desperate to avoid. Her clothes were pretty unremarkable as well, an open flannel shirt paired with and covering a white t-shirt and a pair of white trainers on her feet. The narrow brown bridge glasses only seemed to drive the seeming normality home even further. She was younger looking than him, probably about 16.

"I hope that we can get along, it's an honour to meet you, Nakamura-kun, and that we can do what they want of us." She was short and to the point, here language formal and practiced although there was a notable Russian accent that overlayed the stern yet deep voice.

At least it was preferable than anything else. Shaking his head, the fox boy tried his best to look like he was somewhat happy to be here. "Umm, yeah. Yeah. It's an honour to meet you too, Hisumi. Sure, let's do or best." The silent 'I hope to God this doesn't kill me' luckily flew over the girl's head. "Soooo, where are we going?"

His question was met with similar murmurs from the rest. They had seen the amount of seemingly random entrances and exits that were hidden like this place was Fort Knox, so the only question was where they were meant to be headed. This so called "arena" was probably nowhere close if luck was being its usual self.

"Hehehehehe, as above, so below." Once again, it was Subaru's cryptic way of explaining things that informed them as Kyte wondered off to the other side of the room. Then, in a scarily synchronised fashion, they both hit either side of the wall in the exact same way and made contact at the exact same time.

The whole room began to whirl and churn, a deep rumbling shaking the very foundation. The whole floor, in fact, was turning into a platform and all of the intake stared at what was happening with wide eyes. Whilst the Foundation beforehand had been disgustingly white, this new location had a massive splash of colour. Different shades of green, purple, black, and red, whilst clashing horribly at certain points, had definitely done wonders when compared to the soul sucking vacuum of white. When they had landed down fully at the bottom, they were swiftly beckoned over by Kyte, who was pointing over his shoulder at a pair of double doors. "There are two rules when you're down here and once you go through those doors. One, if you so much as break something that was not a part of a simulation or anything regarding it, you're going to be more than sorry before I drag your ass across this place and humiliate you. Second, if you're slated to be in here at a specific time then I expect you to be there at the specific time, anything less and you'll be answering to the whims of the staff member that caught you out. It's not as if we're going to let you off, even if you've been here your entire life." Running a finger across his fangs as if to emphasise the point further, the point was made evidently clear. Even if they felt like they could take the Vampiric man head on, it was probably for the best if they just never tried in the first place. Yua, seemingly more aware than the others of the punishments that would be dished out, huddled in closer to Subaru.

Giving a small smile to his supposed daughter, Subaru then returned his attention to the now slightly disturbed group "Remember, everyone! Violence isn't an answer, it's a question and the answer is always yes!" Subaru proclaimed, shepherding them all through the double doors and into the viewing area that was to the other side of the massive arena.

"You're sounding more and more like Fauser every day, Subaru." Kyte mussed, herding Hisumi and Kagekatsu over to the other side of the arena. Almost as if the previous splash of colour were some kind of fever dream, this place was back to being a massive white blob that sucked the life and vigour out of anyone that looked at it for too long. At least, that was until the entire scene started to sputter into life, the blank room being overtaken by the setting of dark, moonlight city that wasn't all that different from the one many of the new intake had inhabited up until now. There was even the faintest sense of snow that dashed the roof tops and fell intermittently on the floor in a gentle manner.

To Hisumi, it was almost bittersweet as she took her position on side of the generated city. The snow reminded her of days now long gone and freedom that had long been curtailed. The longing for those days had long torn a hole in a heart, especially considering what had happened after. In some ways, the snow was actually impossible to look at without some sort of churning in her stomach.

On the other hand, Kagekatsu was promptly freezing his ass off. It was barely more than a light coating, but the long-haired fox boy for some reason was shivering like it was nuclear winter. Of course, his clothes didn't help yet it was almost melodramatic. "When-n-n are we-e-e s-starting!?" He yelled, rubbing his arms in attempt to generate some kind of warmth.

"We already did the second you stepped in." Kyte supplied, appearing back at the entrance to the doors. "It's your move now, young ones. There's no other way out than on your shield, make sure to impress us, will you?" He said, slamming the doors and seemingly locking them from the outside.

---

Immediately, both of them could feel the atmosphere change. Up until now, there had been a kind of tense acceptance around every member. Now, with everything stripped bare and the only thing standing between the two of them being this generated city, all that was left for them to do was to fulfil Kyte and Subaru's wishes by beating each other senseless.

Or at least, that was the plan.

Kagekatsu, from the instance his ears twitched with the sound of his opponent's footsteps, instantly got to work with his Quirk. Eyes wide as he tried to do it as quickly as possible, he was lucky that the article lighting hat came from the moon sprawled out shadows all over the place. It wasn't happening nearly as fast as he would've liked, but there was no arguing with results. His whole body began to sink into the shadows around him, moving into them as if he were simply going underwater, he soon vanished completely out of view as he merged into the wall he had ran to for cover.

The Quirk left a few wide eyes among some of the more curious new members, it certainly wasn't what they had expected given his appearance. It might have been slightly stereotypical, but weren't Kitsune and the like supposed to have some sort of fox-fire power? Maybe even a more distinctive shapeshifting power that allowed them to turn into a fox? There certainly weren't a lot of folklore or even modern stories about Kitsune's that could seemingly swim in shadows.

There were also a couple much less interested in the Quirk, they were more interested in the fact that this accounted to running away as opposed to fighting. The main forbearer of this opinion was Arius, whose knuckles were almost turning white as he spied what had happened.

Nakamura Kagekatsu

Quirk: Shadow Fox

Kagekatsu's Quirk gives him the appearance of a one tailed Kitsune from Japanese Folklore whilst stripping him of many of the traditional powers assumed for the creatures. Instead, this Quirk replaces that with the ability to merge and sink into any shadow! However, there is only a limited amount of time, approximately 20 seconds, before Kagekatsu is spat back out to the world at large!

20 seconds was plenty of time for him to come up with a strategy to win this thing, right? He had already spent about five of them trying his best not to panic and come up with a plan, and his mind was still blanking.

He could theoretically have sat in here for as long as he pleased, going in and out intermittently, however that plan was thrown out of the window as soon as he heard Subaru's voice dance over the simulated city. "Just a reminder, to all of you, if any of you during the course of the bout decide to get yourself disqualified and or run away from it in its entirety, then your stay here will be terminated in fewer than 10 seconds. Oh, and Nakamura-kun, you're at a count of seven by now, so I would get going by now if I were you." Great, just fucking wonderful! This was going to go swimmingly!

As Kagekatsu slowly made his way out of his shadowy cocoon he was hoping would carry him through this, he looked down at his thin, scrawny arms and clenched his fists. He had long lost any kind of muscle mass he had supposedly had before the events that had led him to this place, and he was easily one of the weakest looking people here. It wasn't as if he was weak, just that he was far weaker in comparison to the people that could bend steel or punch a hole the size of New York in anything that struck their fancy.

Which made the revealing of Hisumi's Quirk all the more terrifying for the scrawny fox boy. He had no idea she had caught up to him that quickly and without so much as making a sound.

Gigantic, she was gigantic. Easily only a little bit smaller than Fukuro who was a natural wonder all unto himself. However, that was easily the least threatening part of it all. It certainly wasn't the part that was making Kagekatsu's hideous life flash before his eyes.

With hulking biceps that could probably crush his head easily and rivalled the asshole who tormented him for years, the 7ft frame was complemented by the werewolf body with claws so sharp he was already counting his blessings and proofreading his will. The golden fur looked rough, coarse, as she had been through many a tribulation in this form. There were no scars, but it was a monumentally scary thing to see without them regardless. Incapable of human speech, the snarling muzzle dripped with dribbles of saliva as those amber eyes that seemed cold beforehand were now definitely out to kill him.

The only thing he could do, as Hisumi gave one almighty swing of her right arm, was hope that it wasn't going to put him down for the count immediately.

Kinrō Hisumi

Quirk: Lycanthropy

Hisumi is able to transform herself into the form of a large bipedal wolf with golden fur. While in this transformed state Hisumi stands over 7ft tall with hulking muscle and her physical abilities and senses greatly enhanced. However! The longer Hisumi is in this state the more she will begin to lose her sense of humanity until she becomes the Beast. Additionally, whilst in this state Hisumi loses ability to speak like a normal human!

The clubbing blow he received knocked him for six. It was directly in his chest, knocking the wind out of him in the process, and frankly, he was really damn lucky that the only thing that went out south was the large scar that now took centre stage on his chest. The shitty shirt he had been stuffed into giving away in the process and leaving him bare chested. If he wasn't laid flat on his back, it would've revealed the tattoo that had been inked onto his back during that year-long nightmare he had been living.

It took until a count of five before he could even register where he was. The beast that had once been Hisumi was still standing over him, snarling still, and still having the ability to do this again the second he dared reach his feet.

However, he refused to let himself be beaten by a simple punch. It didn't matter if it felt like everything was on fire and he was bleeding profusely from his chest, he had taken a lot more from a lot worse. It would be a spit in the face to everything he had ran away from. Fighting every inch of burning body up to his feet, he stood just as Subaru reached the count of eight. Only for Kagekatsu to collapse to the ground as his legs gave way from under him.

Sensing blood in the water, Hisumi went in for the finishing blow. If one strike could take this fox off of his feet and nearly hand her the win, this blow would certainly render her victorious and started the long journey towards the ultimate freedom in the distance. Swinging hard with her other arm, this one was aimed towards the head of the male. Not enough force to kill, but definitely enough that it could topple even the largest person in the room.

Although, it never ended up connecting. Whilst Kagekatsu might have been the equivalent of a living skeleton, he wasn't just going to allow himself to get smacked in the face again. Quickly, he swung out one of his legs and took out one of Hisumi's legs. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. That adage had never failed him beforehand, and it was still undefeated as it sent the golden-furred beast crashing to the ground.

Having successfully dazed Hisumi momentarily, Kagekatsu leapt into action. Immediately, he slipped back into his shadows, jumping in and out of them without much else on his mind than "Get the hell out of dodge" as the momentary daze for Hisumi only lasted to a two count.

Growling as she had noticed her prey had ran away, Hisumi did something that the others watching weren't expecting. Instead of chasing down the retreating enemy, she stood stock still. Her eyes bolted shut and the gears in her head churning away as if she were trying to discern something important.

Frankly, it intrigued quite a few of the members and did it well enough for Subaru to step in and explain an important little detail to the place. "Hehehe, when Niijima-sama gave me the files of you all I realised that we were having an usually large amount of Quirks that gave our new members enhanced senses. Be they animalistic like the two in there, or just in general. In turn, I resolved to prepare this place beforehand. It may have taken me the entire night, but that whole arena is sterilised and is as clean as a whistle. There is no artificial sound nor is there any artificial smell."

That left a few of them wondering about their own Quirks and how they were going to function in this situation. Given the random nature of the allocation of partners, any one of them could go up against each other. Arius didn't really seem to care who he was up against, given how his perpetual lazy smirk seemed glued to his face as he eyeballed every individual person he could. The girl who had tried to turn Arius into a shish kebab earlier didn't seem to mind too, grinning manically.

On the other side of things, Joseph's mind was going a mile a minute. He had to discern weaknesses quickly, especially when he was given the direct order from someone higher up than him. There was no room for disappointment, for that was the gravest misdeed one could undertake. Fukuro, similarly to Joseph, appeared to be contemplating who he was going to go up against. Although, it was a lot more about how much he had to hold back in regard to hitting them. It would be a nightmare if he accidently went in too hard!

"Dad! Dad! Where did Foxy go?" Yua, who had remained silent most of the journey and not really indicating any sense of interest in the place like the others, tugged on Subaru's overcoat. For her troubles in getting his attention, all he did in response was simply pat her head and give the barest of bare-face smiles.

Kagekatsu had, in fact, managed to jump from the shadows in one of the city to the other end in the space of about seven seconds. He had found himself inside a condensed alleyway that was littered with all sorts of props that ranged from the usual back alley trash to dumpsters and some steel containers. The one issue, a major one at that, was that there was nothing here he could actually lift and unless he could somehow bait Hisumi into running headfirst at one of them. However, that also required him to be able to push it so that wasn't happening either. Really, it only left him with one option.

Meanwhile, Hisumi had been standing as still as mannequin for a good while now. It was actually getting a little concerning, there were at least signs of her breathing, so they knew she wasn't dead, however, it was disconcerting that she wasn't even reacting to the external stimuli of the snow falling on her muzzle.

That was, however, until she suddenly sprung into life. Those harsh amber eyes almost diluting down to the point where the pupil was no longer visible. Then, almost as if she could tell instantly where the foxy boy had run off to. In fact, she did know exactly where he was, and it wasn't anything to do with her enhanced hearing. No, this was to do with her sense of smell. She had caught Kagekatsu's scent the second she walloped him for the first time, and now, she could see the path to him laid bare before her eyes. This was The Hunt.

Hisumi tore her way through the city, an adrenaline pumping charge that left no stone unturned as each successive step in the snow seemed to grow further and further apart as the stride got more and more powerful. The moonlight that was shining down upon them may not have been real, but it was certainly giving her Quirk a boost none the less. The glowing line she saw in her eyes that led towards her target grew smaller and smaller as she reached the very same alleyway that Kagekatsu was holed up in. Pre-emptively, she swung out with yet another strike.

Although, this time would not go as well as the first attempt. The fox boy was no slouch, it didn't take enhanced hearing, having taken position on top of a steel box, Kagekatsu jumped and hope to God he would dodge the incoming blow. He wasn't so successful in that endeavour as another one of Hisumi's steel crushing claws pierced his right arm, which quickly began to gush obscene amounts of blood, almost as if a vein had been burst in the process.

However, it wasn't all bad news for the fox boy. His other arm had somehow managed to latch around Hisumi's neck, and in the process of coming back down to earth as of the result of the strike he had taken, the strangle hold he had locked in ended up taking the beast down with him in the moment. Importantly, as he screamed his head off with pain as his back smacked hard into the concrete, Hisumi had collided headfirst with the steel box that he had used to launch himself. The resounding thwack was absolutely sickening to hear.

The thwack of Hisumi's skull off the ground was disgustingly loud, and frankly made Kagekatsu himself wince which as he peeled himself up from the now bloodied ground. He hadn't used that move in a long time, not since he was carted away to the prison at least, and he certainly hadn't meant to use it in this case, but the name of "One Final Beat" which had been ascribed to it by that spoiled brat who had first taken it had stuck with him. It didn't matter that it most certainly did not live up to the name, but when you've been called a stick figure most of your life, you take what you can get.

Standing tall on the box, following a quick stumble from his blood loss, Kagekatsu regarded the wolf girl with a cold gaze, his golden eyes turning as icy as a tundra as he silently raised his fingers in tandem with the count. He could see the blood beginning to seep through the mess of fur on his opponent's head, and he would be lying if there was some kind of twisted part of him that enjoyed watching the process in action. Of course, his own issues were mounting, with both his chest and arm gushing and turning the trace amounts of snow that had stayed into a bloody, red mess.

That same twisted part of his psyche that allowed him to silently stand large was screaming in his head, baying for him to take the head of the one who had assaulted him. However, as Hisumi remained motionless on the ground, he strangled those thoughts into submission. He was here to reform himself, and if that meant having to kill his natural urges dead then so be it. It didn't matter that someone had hurt him, really, really, it didn't matter at all. God, his jaw felt so fucking heavy in that moment.

It took to the count of seven from the walking clown that had been leading this circus before he could see signs of life, those massive paws and hulking frame clambering to level ground even if the girl wasn't all that sure where she actually was in that current moment.

The fox boy wasn't really one to get into fights, a fact he knew became painfully clear by his own actions and lack of durability already, they were a kind of hassle he never much appreciated in his line of work. A pitched battle was an anathema to anyone with even a shred of competency in said line of work, and he wasn't much a fan of doctors or having to go to a hospital as of the result of them. Still, seeing this beast stumble back onto her feet at the count of nine made him gulp. Even more so when he realised just how much of a sitting, or rather, standing duck he really was.

If anything, his attack had only served to strike the beast even more. There was very literal blood in the water alarm bells ringing in his head. Hisumi didn't need any sort of enhanced, superhuman abilities in order to know this. Whenever you grew up where she had, in the situation she had, and the desire that implants in a person over the course of many a year, there's a kind of dogged determination that bleeds into obscene levels of natural instincts.

Once more, all it took was one punch and her domination of the fight had resumed. This one clobbered Kagekatsu right in the head, the light behind his eyes fading as he tumbled from the box and smashed the back of his head hard on the concrete. There was no sugar coating it, he was out cold.

Hisumi didn't take any chances though, she was right on top of him and tearing the steel box to shreds. There was no chance that she was going to allow him to slither off like a slimy bastard into the shadows again. Additionally, whilst she may not have been able to vocalise her thoughts, her human mind was still fully intact and had learnt from her pervious mistake of going for broke. Stomping down on Kagekatsu's leg, the paws dug in deep as she trailed them up and down, scratching and scarring it to an almost mutilated state. This was Last Man Standing after all, and you couldn't stand if one of your legs was busted.

It took until the count of seven for Kagekatsu to even stir. If the One Final Beat had hit Hisumi hard enough that her beast form was briefly unable to stand for nine seconds, then this blow, powered on by a newly found determination to win, was even worse. He'd be lying his head off if he said he even knew who he was during those seven seconds. However, as soon as the eight count was tallied, something with his own instincts kicked into overdrive. It wasn't as if he had somehow gained superhuman strength in return for his superhuman stupidity, instead those urges that he had long tried to control just as his dad had tried to teach him to do jumped to life. He couldn't help it as a slimy smirk sprawled across his lips.

Snapping both of his arms around the paw that had been turning his leg into a battlefield, he wrenched hard on Hisumi's leg, sending her to the ground for just a split second. It wasn't even long enough for a count to be administered, but it had given Kagekatsu ample time to make a slight charge to his feet to break his own count, before he promptly collapsed back to the ground and submerged himself in shadows.

He knew he couldn't spend that much time in them lest he risk losing or being spat out, nor could he spend any more time out in the open before he collapsed because of his now destroyed leg. Still, he had to do something. The beast was utterly dominating him, and even his desperation move had failed to deliver for him. He could just tell that the next two seconds, as he struggled to maintain his upwards stance, would spell doom for him. He knew, just knew, that Hisumi was going to come and officially keep him down for the count.

However, as the time passed by and he pulled himself out of the metaphorical hole he had put himself in by steadying himself up against a wall, there was little evidence of his foe. His ears were twitching all about the place, his tail was going haywire, yet he could make out no sounds nor could he instinctively pick up on wherever Hisumi was. The lack of Subaru's irritating voice indicated that she was still on her feet, yet there was no indication that she was anywhere nearby.

Had he… He hadn't gotten away… Had he?

If so, then that was the damn best fucking thing that could've happened to him. It made him almost want to burst out laughing if the immense blood loss wasn't already killing his capacity for speech. It just made him want to burst out in joy, he was an expert after all! Sure, he had received a few deriding remarks from idiots that wouldn't know what good tactics were if they were ran over by a steamroller, but he was a survivor first and foremost. This place, in comparison to the situations he had slimed out of before, was a fucking piss take. This was so goddam eas-

Kagekatsu didn't even have a second to react as he heard the bestial snarl of Hisumi emanate from behind him. Nor did he have the appropriate time to react as the stealthy Hisumi, who had long already tracked the fox boy down with relative ease, swung for the fences and hit him for six. This one just as powerful as the rest, although, thankfully, it didn't cause any acceleration in his bleeding as he fell face first into the ground.

There was no hope for him returning to his feet, especially not when Hisumi decided it would be best to place her feet on both of his hands. There was no chance she was going to allow him to fight from under again.

As Subaru finally reached the count of ten, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had managed to come out on top and with relative ease too. Truthfully, she was expecting someone a little more durable than that. She had held back a fair bit too, not out of an intent to embarrass him, though. Like many of the others, she was a bit shocked when she heard the announcement that they were going to go at it like animals and the staff seemed okay with them doing whatever they wanted. She suspected many of the others were also holding secret reservations and wishing to hold back, but this was actually kinda freeing. It may have been only for a few moments, and it was dangerous with a Quirk like hers, but for those instances she was transported back to a time where her feet would run happily in the snows of winter, racing side by side with the people close to her, not having a care in the world for what may happen. If only those moments could've lasted forever…

Kagekatsu, of course, was totally unaware of what had happened. Getting knocked out cold does that to a man. However, it was almost scary how still he remained as the simulation sputtered out of existence. It was nearly a full minute before he managed to gain some sort of motor functions back, which in turn convinced with a "Where the fuck am I and who the fuck are you?" Leaving his lips as he struggled back to his feet.

But of course, since luck always decided to pick on him, he wasn't met with the beast form of Hisumi. Instead, he was met with a crimson red, very embarrassed, very… Open Hisumi who was doing her best to cover her body. She knew she shouldn't have done it in a place where everyone would be able to see her. It wasn't like she had any other choice, though!

"Ah! Get out of my sight!" Kagekatsu instantly covered up his eyes. He did not see that, that did not happen, and he was not going to remember it. Where was the guy with the memory erasure Quirk when you needed him.

For the first time today, however, they both received a batch of good luck as the doors opened and Kyte came into the room. Subaru, on his end, had drawn down a barrier after much prodding from Yua, allowing all of the ones who wished it to forget the sight also.

"Congratulations, Kinrō-san, you manged to win it. I'm very pleased with your performance out there." Hisumi was too embarrassed by the situation to actually reply with words, but managed to give a weak nod to Kyte's words as the vampiric man came closer and spotted the blood dripping from her forehead "If you wish, we have an infirmary not too far away outside those doors. Take one left turn and you should be able to get something to treat you until we find a more permanent solution. Fauser will be there to give you something to cover up."

"Thank you a lot, Niijima-san. I'm really sorry you all had to see this." Even when embarrassed, Hisumi's speech was still remarkably formal as she quickly started out of the room and towards the supposed infirmary.

With Hisumi gone, Kyte turned his attention to the staggering Kagekatsu. The blue haired male wasn't best pleased at having to cover his nose again, he could stomach the smell of Hisumi's blood as it was only a small stream. On the other hand, on top of being soundly beaten, the gushing blood from his chest and arms were nearly overpowering his will. But he had long gone past those foolish days of his youth where he would fall victim to his instincts "Nakamura-kun. Same place, some statement. One thing to add though, I wouldn't go bleeding that much around Fauser. He might try something funny and I really don't want to deal with him whenever I'm already busy with the group of Sweathogs over in that other room. Do you understand me?"

Kagekatsu caught his tongue before he could say anything that would dig his hole even deeper. "Yes, sir." He mumbled, still not having anyway to stop the bleeding, but at least it had slowed to the point where he wasn't the Niagra Falls of blood anymore.

Unbeknownst to Kagekatsu as he dragged himself out, Kyte grinded his teeth as he saw the tattoo that encompassed all of the fox boy's back. "I'll make you fade to black one of these days, Puppetmaster."

"Dad! Dad, that looked like they had lots of fun! Can I go next! Please! I wanna play!" Yua's babbling broke the breath that collective group hadn't realised they had been holding. The fight, while not overly brutal, gave a few indications and moves that they very much didn't want to be on the end of, even if a few did happen to think they could maybe tank them if they were lucky. It was, most certainly, not something that you should be referring to as "fun" and from within the group, one of the males, the same one with the mouth and body out of a horror film, ground his sharp teeth into fine points. That statement was just so, so, so…

"You'll get your turn whenever the wheel decides, Yua." Subaru responded, already eyeing two people in particular as he moved over to where he had positioned the wheel. Only to be stopped from turning it by an inquisitive Joseph.

"Is that it? Are we not going to be doing a breakdown? Are we not going to say what we thought of the fight?" His voice remained ever more even but his eyes had narrowed as he regarded Subaru with something resembling disdain for his words earlier. "Although, that would be something that a proper Hero teaching us would do, so I guess it's not too out of character."

Pacing over to where Joseph had perched himself, Subaru looked the horned teen in the eye. In the background, the previously peppy Yua took a step back on her inane happiness as her "dad" took a few extra seconds before he suddenly stuck out his tongue as a soaking wet card found itself on the end of the appendage. There was no reaction on Joseph's end of things, but it was pretty clear that a few of them were pretty disgusted as the pink haired man plucked it from the end of the tongue and held it out for the other to grab "There you go, Mr Ice Prince. Take it from me, we'll get there eventually. As of now, keep your eyes open for your name, otherwise the premonition of that card might very well come true." Letting the card fall as Joseph made no attempt to grab it, it was lucky for the others that the card happened to leave it face up. The Ace of spades was staring back up at them.

Any chance they got to think, though, was instantly destroyed by Subaru immediately spinning the wheel back into life. "Round and round the wheel goes, where it stops nobody knows! Hehehehehehe!" At least this time around for Subaru it was easy to hear himself think when there wasn't someone praying for his salvation "Ohohoho! This one is going to be a great one so everyone better keep their eyes peeled! Arius Amiliosand Kumatobu Fukuro! Prepare a feast for our eyes, you two are up next!"

Arius' smirked widened into a grin, this was just the perfect opponent for him to strut his stuff. He didn't know an awful lot about the big guy, then again, no one really did about anyone else, but he was blessed to have at least spent some time near him so his mind was already at work even as he patted the other on the back as he made his way to the doors. "Let's knock it out of the park, Big guy! You heard the man!"

Strutting past them, Arius was the picture of confidence. Fukuro, on the other, was much more apprehensive as he cautiously made his way out of the sea of people. He didn't see how anyone, much less Arius, could be excited by this orgy of violence they were being told to commit. It was simply barbaric what he had seen previously! Beyond that, however, he had noticed one thing about Arius' arm, the same one that had been sliced at by that horror film girl.

Hadn't it been a pretty deep cut?

Why it did it look like nothing had happened in the first place, then?

---

Both of them soon found themselves face to face without so much as another second to think. With the final lock of the doors, the scene around them spluttered into life. A luscious looking woodland forest, masses of trees and weeds that sprawled for what would've been miles on end had this place actually been real.

Where Arius was stood happened to be a more open area, the entry to the forest being wide and welcoming as he instinctively found himself taking cover within the mess of foliage. It was really unlikely that he wasn't going to hear Fukuro coming for him, the guy shook the ground with every damn step he took and unless he could certainly turn himself into the second coming of Solid Snake, it was going to be relatively easy to spot him coming through the trees. Still, Arius wasn't about to leave any stone unturned. Pulling a thumb around his dog tags, he thought back to the days of training he had received. The operations he had seen people undertake. How they taught him to act in situations like this. Really, the forest was the ideal place to put everything into practice, and it was almost like the Foundation had read this from the beginning.

In Fukuro's case, he had ended up trapped within a particularly dense area of the forest. His wings nearly getting caught on branches as he tried his best to manoeuvre without causing any kind of damage to his own body. It was hell to manoeuvre in open, broad daylight from time to time, doing it in this situation, especially with his Quirk, was like he had been chucked down to the 11th layer of Hell and was currently in the devil's mouth being chewed repeatedly. He was really lucky that he could still triangulate the general area Arius was in by sound, if he couldn't do that then it would've really been a losing battle despite his height. In fact, there was no guarantee that he didn't accidently knock himself out if he weren't careful!

Kumatobu Fukuro

Quirk: Owlbear

Fukuro's Quirk is a rather self-evident mutation quirk, Owlbear grants him the traits and capabilities of both owls and bears. His body is large and powerful, taking on the general body plan, and size, of a bear's whilst his head is that of an owl, with a hooked, serrated beak. Two feathered wings sprout from his back, taking on a relatively round shape and granting swift, near-silent flight, courtesy of specially serrated flight feathers. Naturally, he possesses great strength and durability, making him a formidable physical combatant. He also possesses senses of hearing and sight far greater than that of the average human, being able to triangulate sounds' origins by way of asymmetrical ear holes, and possessing the phenomenal nocturnal vision of an owl.

Still on his feet, Arius happened to be waiting for the correct moment to strike. Now, Arius wasn't the stealthiest guy on the planet. It wasn't even a contest if he fractured in the likely Quirks of the other intake members. Hell, that massive wolf girl, who wasn't all that bad looking if he did say so himself, probably had more stealth ability in her pinky finger than he did in his whole body. However, if there was one thing that Arius prided himself on, beyond many, many wonderful things about himself, it was a little ability he had. So, in effect, it didn't matter when Fukuro eventually found him, as he was bound to do so, it only mattered that the spiky haired male was able to get the drop on the big lug. As had constantly been taught to him "All warfare is based on deception, Junior!" Hearing the thumping steps of the Owlbear, he let that lazy smirk worm its way onto his face as he began to lay his trap…

Meanwhile, Fukuro continued to make his way through the foliage. He was really hoping that he ended up meeting Arius soon, the hanging branches were beginning to wreak havoc on his wings. Speaking of his wings, whilst he had had the initial desire to spread them out and soar above the forest, he suddenly remembered one of Kyte's earlier declarations. If they were to break anything pf the simulation they would be in thrall to his judgement, and that judgement could involve them recuperating their losses. That meant money, and the last thing Fukuro wanted above all else was to cost this place that had taken him in out of the kindness of their hearts money.

It was in that moment, as he was busy worrying about whether or not his flight was actually going to destroy something, that one of his asymmetrical ears caught wind of something snapping in the distance. Instantly, those owl eyes were attempting to zero in on the source of the sound. It might not have been an artificial night, but he was still going to have a fair advantage over Arius in that department. It took a few minutes of searching, minutes that were full of snapping and breaking and mending that seemed to turn up all about the place, before he was truly able to locate Arius.

Arius, having heard the massive stomps of Fukuro grind to a deafening silence, knew that now was his moment. Those sounds, well, here's the thing about sensitive hearing. Sure, it allows you to pick up smaller sounds easier, which in turn makes it harder for one to hide near by the person in question. However, it was a curse in disguise. Hypersensitive ears would pick up anything that they could. Arius had in fact been only a few feet away from Fukuro, hiding away having successfully climbed and jumped from tree to tree until he had perched himself just behind the Owlbear, the sounds Fukuro had been hearing were in fact Arius tossing sticks and stones and anything he could find as far as he could. It didn't matter how many scars he picked up in the process, it was just a drop in the ocean.

As Fukuro quickly found the sounds he had been hearing were in fact occurring all over the place, he made to snap his head around, just as he had done earlier in the day. However, he soon found another weight bearing down on him. Arius was easily the second tallest member of the intake, second only to his opponent, he was also one of the more muscular and heaviest members of the intake, once again falling victim to the mythical qualities of Fukuro. Having him landing on top of you was akin to feeling a brick shithouse collapse and bury you underneath it. To make matters worse, Arius, taking a few cues from his old man, had cinched in the hardest Sleeper Hold he could muster. The body he was trying to choke out might have been massive, but by locking his legs around the bear like frame, he was able to reach his right arm across the neck and pulled back harshly as he interlocked his hands.

This was Last Man Standing, if he could force Fukuro to black out then he couldn't stand. Frankly, he was bit surprised that he hadn't seen the other two from before try something like this. Then again, Pretty Boy was too focused on running away like an idiot, instead of standing his ground like a man.

On Fukuro's side, it was evidently clear he was in a pretty bad situation. Immediately, he had tried to claw and scrap through his attacker's arm with those talons of his. He had thought he was having monumental success, there was blood absolutely pouring out Arius' arm and the thing initially looked as if it had been put through a woodchipper multiple times. The pain the spiky haired male must have been feeling was probably the equivalent of a volcano erupting all over his body. However, that was when Fukuro noticed a very crucial fact about the blood that now coated his feathers. Before the instant that it turned your bog-standard crimson red, it was in fact bleeding with a de-oxygenated silvery hue. Then, the Owlbear's eyes trailed down to the arm latched around his throat.

It was… Perfect.

There was no sign of any damage…

What the hell was this guy's Quirk?!

"Looks like you've just realised the situation, Big Guy." Arius remarked, driving in the hold even further. If he was going to tear down a mountain, all he needed was to knock out the base, it didn't matter if he could so much as lay a hand on the full body without getting seriously hurt. Especially not when his Quirk worked the same way his did. "I'll give you a helpful little hint, ain't any of you going to be keeping me down under any circumstances!"

Arius Amilios

Quirk: Immortal

Arius' quirk makes him effectively immortal. Simply put, he cannot be killed by any means as he just regenerates from all damage in mere moments and has no limits like with other regeneration quirks. His Quirk also gives his blood a silver hue when in his bloodstream but will turn the usual red when exposed to oxygen. However, this does not leave him immune from external factors such as sleeping gas, toxic fumes, or even from feeling pain. Arguably, it is only his high pain threshold that keeps him conscious most of the time.

Desperate to find a way out before his world faded to black, Fukuro sprang into action. Instantly, his first thought and action was to ram the body of Arius repeatedly into one of the tree trunks to turn his spine into absolute mincemeat. However, whilst he did get the momentary satisfaction of his animal instincts from the slight scream of pain, it didn't do much to stop Arius' hold from taking effect. If he couldn't tear the arms apart, then maybe he had other avenues to explore. One of which happened to spring to life as soon as he thought of it. Arius may have landed on him from the back, but that also meant that his wings were absolutely fair game to use. Powering them out, Fukuro immediately flapped them like he had never done before.

The resulting gust of wind had not only set him free from Arius' choke hold, but it had also sent the Immortal teen flying through the forest. No doubt that was going to scar up his back and his body like hell, only for it too heal moments later as if nothing had changed. However, there was no way that he wasn't going to feel the pain of going through multiple trees and spiked bushes and get right back up to his feet. In fact, it took a full four seconds before he could even heal all the injuries he received, his blood now seeping and coating the ground red as it took all of his willpower not to want to scream to the heavens. It was another two second before he was able to break the count, but damn was everything now exploding like it had been strapped with timed explosives.

To make matters even worse, Fukuro was right on him as well. The blast of the wings would've normally kicked up a massive pile of dust, but that was not going to happen due to the sterilisation of the arena. Still, the path of Arius' body had carved quite the neat little path for the Owlbear to tear through to him and envelop him in a massive, bone crushing bearhug. Picking him up like he was a mere child, the huge body of the bear finally bore its use. The crushing weight and power of the arms swinging him about and contorting his spine into something unholy was immense, it was a desperate fight to not let the pain overtake him. In and out, his face was repeatedly smashed into that stout body that would hopefully leave him with only a handful broken noses.

The combined pain of having your body repeatedly having these fully formed bones smashed, repaired, and then smashed again took an immense toll on Arius' body. An ordinary man would've long submitted or passed out to the pain, and even thought his body was as if he had been run over by a truck, reversed over for good measure, and then tossed into an incinerator because the fucker wasn't quite sure he was dead yet. As he continued to be smashed as if he were a pinata, it was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes from shutting. As mentioned before, a normal man might have fallen victim to it long ago.

However, Arius was no normal man, not by a longshot. His arms might have been trapped within the bear hug, but his legs were still barely moving and kicking about. As soon as Fukuro had taken a brief pause in his swinging motion, Arius kicked his legs out and struck for gold. His stiff kick, aided by years of training in Muay Thai and assorted kickboxing arts, hit home and hit hard.

Fukuro only gave a momentary flinch of pain, he was a near 700lb mythical creature after all, one kick was like an annoying fly orbiting around his face that he couldn't quite reach. Irritating, but he could go about his day perfectly fine without doing anything about it. However, it was the momentary flinch that allowed Arius to sink in yet another blow. This time, the spiky haired male had launched his head with vicious intent and clobbered the Owlbear straight in the face. Arius could deal with the fact one of his eyes happed be pierced by Fukuro's beak in the process, right now his only focus was somehow managing to get this utter monster on his back for ten seconds.

The clash of heads had knocked both of them to the ground, but it was Arius, with blood seeping from his gradually reforming right eye and busted chest, that reached his feet first as his count tallied five. No matter what the situation was, he wasn't going to let himself be kept down by anyone.

Fukuro, daze by the impact, found himself tripping over one of the destroyed stumps and straight onto his head. However, just as Arius before him, it didn't matter how much pain he was about to take. Much less because he was immortal, much more because he was the equivalent size in frame to a tank. His own count was broken mere moments after Arius had risen to break his.

With both of them now on their feet, both of them having to withstand various stiff shots and blows that would've likely caused lesser men to wilt, their eyes met, and Arius couldn't help but grin. "Well, we were told to put on a show, weren't we? But I still got a hell of a lot left in the tank, so what do you say? Want to give them all something to feast their eyes on?" A solitary nod from Fukuro was all the conformation that Arius needed.

Both men blazed a trail to each other.

Fukuro landed a heavily stiff elbow that resulted in the sickening crack and destruction of Arius' jaw. Multiple teeth being spat out as the muscles strung themselves back together, only for yet another stiff shot, this time an uppercut, sent Arius back a couple of feet and caused a new batch of teeth to become a torrent out of his mouth.

Even still, Arius remained standing. He even gave a grin as the jaw snapped back into place, even as he did so there was still the image of the teeth falling out of his mouth as new ones reformed. "Haha! You're a real trooper, man! Come on!" Almost as if he had a death wish, Arius baited Fukuro closer to him. "Come on! Come at me!"

With nothing else to do if he wanted to win, Fukuro charged onwards. He hoped to God this next one would at least done something. This was too cruel! He felt like he was killing the poor bastard and that was something he had tried to leave behind him for God's sake! All of his remaining might put into this remaining blow, Fukuro swung for the fences…

Only for Arius to swiftly drop out of the way, and the most important part of it being that he had managed to sink in a drop toehold that caused Fukuro's face to summarily smack, not into the ground, but into the tree that had sustained Arius' initial impact. Said tree happened to be utterly obliterated due to the power Fukuro's wings had flung Arius with, however, it also happened to be jagged in its obliteration. Haphazard and dangerously sharp splinters lay all over the stump, and one person happened to be very unfortunate that one of them landed deep into his chest. Not deep enough for it to poke out of the other side, nor anywhere close to any vital organs, but certainly enough to send his pain threshold to the absolute maximum.

As he heard the count of Subaru reach a suspiciously speedy five, he tired his best to pull himself out of the splinter. When it hit seven and that strategy was seemingly failing, if the amount of guts he was close to spilling up was anything to go by, he was about to go for broke and just shatter the damn thing and fight the rest of the fight with a huge splinter in chest.

However, he didn't so much as get the chance. Just as he was about to finally break the thing in two, an incredibly stiff knee strike, probably the stiffest and hardest normal strike he had been hit with in a long ass time, impacted the back of his head and his world went black moments before his head struck the tree stump.

Arius had been lying in wait, he didn't have to do much of a job lining it up, but the second he saw the fact Fukuro might actually be able to muscle his way out he knew that he too had to go for broke. The massive bear hug from earlier had sapped him of almost all of his strength, but he had just enough left, and one knee he was impartial to exploding, to deliver what turned out to be the knockout blow.

Despite the fact Fukuro was on his feet not even five seconds later and now looked like he wanted to eat Arius alive, it was far too late. Arius was already laughing as Subaru's count had struck the magic number just moments before the Owlbear could land his second foot on the ground. "Ooh, better luck next time buddy, looks like you were just a little bit too slow. No hard feelings, right?" He said, as he sat down, the scene around them fading back to the white arena, now with additional streaks of blood to join the ones from earlier. The smarmy grin and wave he gave to Fukuro didn't win him any friends in the viewing room either, especially not one guy who was getting just the slightest bit annoyed at the guy with too much damn pride acting like he owned the place.

"So… Who's next?" Subaru said, not wasting any time for conversation.

The wheel spun and they held their breath.

---

A/N: Woo, what a fucking ride that hopefully was! Well, hopefully you had a good time reading that, and before anything else is brought up, I'm going to be using these fights as introduction tools as well as establishing traits, so don't be too disheartened if your character didn't show up fully in this one. They will certainly be making an appearance by at least chapter 5. Until then, I reiterate my hope you enjoyed the chapter and wish you all a very happy new year too.

Tick Tock.