Will Never Be Replaceable

Waking up was always, always a pain for Kagekatsu. Not least because it meant he had to go through his usual morning routine to look even the slightest bit presentable, having to spend close to half an hour making sure his tail was well kept and his hair didn't look like he came out of a warzone generally didn't make him excited for the day.

However, what made it really fun today was the fact he now had to negotiate it on a gammy leg and the slew of horrific stitches that had been torn out of his back and front, with the broken nose being just par for the course at this point. He was pretty sure he needed a whole notepad to list down how many times it had been broken over the years.

That wasn't even mentioning the key fact that he just had to get the room with the broken mirror… Which made his clean up job just that bit harder. Because, why not? Of course, nothing would be going right for him here, would it? First, he gets stuck next to the jobber that made James Ellsworth look like a main eventer, then he gets stuck with a broken mirror.

What was going to be next? Getting tossed back to those gaggle of bastards that had let him take the fall for them in the first place? Or, more than likely given how this place had been nothing but an iceberg of pain and suffering, he was going to be thrown into some kind "Bonding exercise" organised by that sadistic fucking clown!

Rubbing his hands over his face, carefully avoiding his nose that had luckily stopped bleeding just before he went to sleep, the fox boy took a moment to simmer down. Deep breaths in and out, making sure he wasn't already tensing up his glass canon of a body. Even a cursory glance down at his body would make him wise to what he had become, and that was just a fact of life he had to live with now.

Ugh, he was already depressing himself and he still hadn't dragged his lazy ass out of the bed yet. Was that a new record? At this point, he didn't care too much if it was. The more time he just spent thinking about it, the more it just made him want to tear at the side of his head, and if he lost even more blood then it would be like if he was in a trap thought up by some kind of inventive serial killer.

Hauling himself out of the bed, which was attached to the wall with some of the most uncomfortable mattresses known to man, and touching down on the cool ground, he was certain it was only like that because they didn't want there to be any amount of joy or fun in this place. Although, the owner of the place was a vampire after all. It wasn't like he should have been expecting much. Hell, he expected Subaru to be the type of person to say, "It's just building character!" Instead of calling it what it actually was.

Dragging his feet across the floor, the cold surface feeling like it was going to swallow him at any moment like he was walking on some giant Venus Flytrap, he looked for anything to wear as he wrapped the thin quilt from the bed around him. There was, evidently, little central heating in this place. Once more, not much of a shock, and something he should really be expecting at his point as he searched with shaking limbs through the wardrobe in the back.

Hisumi's onslaught had kinda left him in the lurch in regards to his clothing situation, those shitty clothes from the prison were never going to really go anywhere further than the first day. Yet, somehow, despite his much more experienced and better judgement, he had been expecting slightly more out of them.

Eh, it wasn't like he had lost much at the end of the day. As dull eyes and calloused hands pulled through the clothes that had been afforded to him, they widened and tightened on both ends as they took in how accurate they were to style back before he had… Fallen in with the wrong crowd. In fact, it was almost scary just how accurate they had been…

Taking the offending items out, making sure the hinges didn't break on him because it sounded like these doors hadn't been oiled in decades, he place them against the bed with the utmost care. "Fucking creeps…" He mumbled as he edged closer and let his hands run over the soft fabric. "Did they raid Dad's stuff or something…?"

The clothing in question might have been very simple for someone else, and they even brought images of that other girl, Mahoro if Kagekatsu remembered the name correctly, but they were very much something he hadn't seen in close to two years at this point. After a few more moments of staring like a gormless idiot, he at last pulled himself to start the process.

First off was the black turtleneck jumper. To be honest, getting himself dressed whenever having to deal with his ears was always a pain. Too often had the clothes gotten stuck on something there, and he would never admit in public the time he was stuck for close to an hour until his dad bailed him out. At least this time was a success, it fit seamlessly onto his body, even making it look like he was slightly less of a twig. Which, frankly, was something of an achievement with how his body decided it wanted to work.

Either way, once he was done with that part, it came to the piece that looked like it had been ripped straight from his dad. It was a black, red, and white male kimono with flames on the fabric. The deep, crimson red was the main colour, dancing over the fabric and making it the most lovely shade of the colour imaginable. The white worked along the outlines, accentuating the red and the incoming black to the nth degree. Finally, the black took the position of lighting up the flames on the sides of the fabric, the white outlines helping to make them pop just that little bit more. All in all it was something that looked both elegant and gothic at the same time, the style that Kagekatsu and his family was born to revel in.

Never once forgetting how to put it on, it had been a very lengthy session with both his mum and dad in order to figure that one out, Kagekatsu let himself give into the luxury of wearing clothes he actually felt comfortable in for the first time in forever. Seriously, he may have not been in prison for very long, but goddamn it was a slog and the clothes just served to murder his ability to feel joy with his scratchy they turned out to be.

Of course, he still lacked footwear, but that was really by the by. He was happy with his clothes for the first time in a long time. In fact, the feeling was so great that he elected to push back his desire to question how this place was able to get them in the first place. Maybe there was some sliver of joy he could take out of here after all…

Now, if his grumbling stomach was anything to go by, breakfast was the most important thing right about now.

Believe it or not, and a few of the new members were in the process of still trying to figure out if what they had been told was real, but the Broken Heart Found was in fact not somewhere that people knocked lumps out of each other 24/7 for 365 days a year.

"Frankly, I'm a little offended that you already all think so lowly of us." Subaru snorted, picking out dirt from underneath his freshly done up fingernails. "Niijima-sama and I did mention that that was just akin to an entrance exam, discovering if we needed to drop what we don't need, the usual, you know?"

No one dared to speak back up to their sadistic clown coordinator, well no one that was actually present with him at the minute. Ikariko was still lost somewhere in that nebulous delta that was the dormitory corridor, Joseph hadn't been seen all day and could realistically be anywhere, Yua had seemingly either gotten lost or vanished into the ether for some godforsaken reason, and Arius seemed to be lost in some kind of fantasy wonderland within his head as he went off to explore the Foundation. Clearly deciding that he was better than sitting in "class" with the rest of them.

"Either way, all we ask you to do is turn up to this class every once in a while. It's the least you can do for us housing you." Subaru continued, twirling a loose strand of hair around his index finger and sounding surprisingly reasonable for once in his life. Although, the passive aggressive comment at the end did do the damage as to how past whatever "offence" he had taken earlier he really was. "Won't last much more than an hour or so, after that you're free to do anything you could want!" He finished, leaning on the wall and giving them the biggest grin he could muster. Of course, being Subaru, the grin looked like belonged on the face of a slasher villain, but you could only ask for so much realistically speaking.

Still in somewhat of a dazed state, both from the bruising of their bodies just now deciding to kick up a notch due to the lack of adrenaline, and the fact they were actually being spoken to and told to do regular student things, there was once again no forthright answer to Subaru's words. The most anyone could muster was an inquisitive look over to where they had been led after their short breakfast had been interrupted.

It didn't look to be that far away from the simulation chamber, they could recognise the hideous splashes of colour that made Mahoro retch just thinking about, and they could still smell the faintest amount of blood wafting down from the place. At least, that could be said to be true on Hisumi, Akashi, and Kagekatsu's end. The former looking off into the distance and cocking her head a bit, and the latter's face cringing at the fact he would have to sit through the smell the eternity of this so called "lesson."

Snatching everything back to reality with one authoritative clap, Subaru gave one final message to them all. Already starting to depart before the first word has even passed through his glossy, black lips. "Wellllllll, I'll leave you all to your own devices then! What I said just before still applies, although if any of you get lost, just scream your head off and someone will come and find you eventually! Nishishishishi!" With his trademark laugh, Subaru left them all to themselves. His macabre sense of humour perhaps not being the best tone setter for a group of kids still unknown to each other, and still not knowing what possible horrors lay behind the door.

It took another couple of moments for someone to finally take the initiative and knock on the door, that person being Mahoro, who seemed to be the only one that wasn't all that perturbed about the possible disasters that could have emerged from int front of them. One could even say she was lightly confident, but that played a secondary role, though.

Instead of some gigantic turtle monster, seventy foot tall and fifty foot wide, bursting out from behind the door and having their guts for garter, they were greeted with a rather soft, yet authoritative sound voice "Ah, finally. You may enter." A key point to note, for all of them, though, was the fact that whilst the spoken Japanese was mostly passable, it was laced with a notable accent that none of them could quite place right from the off.

A coy smirk on Mahoro's end, opening up the door and allowing each and everyone of them to pass through. Of course, there was the issue of having to make special dispensation for Fukuro, who was adamant that he was not hitting his head like he had done so many times prior already, before they could all meet face to face with their "teacher" for the moment.

"At last, I was beginning to think Subaru had lied to me again. Lord knows with him sometimes… Please, take your seats." The same voice, belonging to the six-foot-tall man standing before a rather quaint, simple looking desk, called out to them. Nothing really betrayed what he was thinking beyond perhaps frustration, but then again, the members might have only been around for two days, but spending any prolonged amount of time around Subaru would knock the wind out of someone.

He looked quite well built too, a clam, poised posture as he strode out to guide most of everyone into their seats. Just like the cafeteria and their dorms, there was a sizable space between all the seats as if they were being distanced as for some sort of precautionary reason. As if they were all carrying some kind of deadly disease.

"…Lot less rowdy than I expected…" He mumbled under his breath tussling some hair out of his eyes, the light brown bangs swept back up into their spiked-up form with the help of some hair gel. His jade green eyes flicking back to the class as he stood next to the board at the front, his tanned hand reaching out for a remote of some type. "Hiroto-san." Came the short, snappy, curt half-demand.

Following the eyes of what they assumed to be their teacher, they came across another figure. One that had a few wide eyes attached to it upon first glance. Trapped in the back corner, standing with a hand against his chest and the other in lock and stock at his side, was an almost scarily flipped version of Hideyoshi. It was hard to tell at first glance, and no one dared to bring it up lest they stoke Hideyoshi to emerge from somewhere or drop his act, but the general picture with this new guy was different on a whole new level.

Identical clothing to his doppelganger, only for it to be finely pressed and actually looking like the suit it was supposed to be. Identical hair style, the dark grey bang cupping the other side of his face this time around. Identical earring, snapped into place in the opposite ear to Hideyoshi. All of it was like looking at a mirror version of the eerie, weird male that had invaded them during the moment of peace at the infirmary.

Slithering out of the corner, Hiroto, even the names were vaguely similar to each other, dutifully handed the other what they had been looking for. It was a small, silver remote. Nothing too large, nothing too small, and one click set the rickety looking projector whirring into motion.

"First off, I would like to introduce myself to you all. My name is Oscar Morales, I'll be helping you during your stay here. I would prefer you address me as your teacher, but past experiences have proven otherwise." Oscar, obviously not a name that was all that common within Japan, threw out a kind of side-eyed glare to Hiroto on the right side of him. The other male simply responding with a little smirk and figure over his lips, right before Oscar shook his head and spoke back out to his class "And this is Hiroto-san, you may have met his twin. As of now, he is here for insurance purposes."

Well, that was an awfully suspicious way to introduce something. Not helping, of course, was the prior experience with Hiroto's twin brother. Nor was the general disconcerting aura that emanated around Hiroto. On top of that, there was little to dispel that notion whenever he spoke, bowing with his hand against his chest like some kind of domestic servant. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you, I'll be sure to assist you anyway I can~." Whilst Hideyoshi might have sounded like someone was strangling an eel, Hiroto had a quiet, macabre lilt to his voice. Sounding like he was dripping poison into your ear in the most polite way possible. His slight smile exposing the rows of razor sharp teeth, just like Hideyoshi.

A sigh escaped from Oscar's lips in the process of Hiroto returning to his place, a hand going through his hair and brief mutters under his breath being the only indication of his mood before everything was kicked into gear again. Twirling the remote in his hand deftly, not single dust particle out of place, a push of a button had their "lesson" for the day up on the screen. "Either way, I don't have any time to waste here, so let's get started, shall we? First off, let's all go over your schedule, because I guess someone has to do it for you."

Flipping up the schedule, something that along with the fact they were in class right now made it feel like the Foundation was actually a normal place, it was actually Hiroto that took the liberty of explaining it all. "Niijima-sama prefers to allow us all to do as we please, as you would've seen yesterday and a bit earlier today, however, every clock needs to be oiled correctly from time to time. Fujinaga might have told you earlier, but we only mandate these lessons for one hour every day. From then on, you are free to execute whatever you desire. As for what else, it's lights out after 11, and that's the final word. Niijima-sama does not enjoy having to see blinding lights whenever he wakes up."

It was a fairly sparse schedule, something that allowed Hiroto's rather brief explanation of the thing. Only three things were labelled on it, an hour block of time to wake up in, the hour block of time for which class was mandated, and the lights out time. To many there, expecting that a place like this would be very intensive in their "recuperation" into society, the lack of much concrete activity was nothing but a little disconcerting.

Sat perfectly poised at the corner of the desk, left leg crossed over the right, Oscar spoke to their minds' unasked question. A little experience would go a long way. "We are here to assist you, not guide you like some kind of pied piper leading the rats out of town. I do believe that Niijima-sama made sure to mention, to all of you, just like he would have done with me, that nobody is here to do anything for you."

Letting that sink in, Oscar passed the remote off to Hiroto, allowing him to get his slimy ass actively involved in this "Lesson". Having to introduce himself for the first time was always a pain, the new kids either took to everything like a fish to water, were in desperate denial of their circumstances, or were just all around headcases that would rather scream and yell their heads off for no good reason.

At least some of the ones that had bothered to turn up, because he was naturally going to spot the couple of empty seats, didn't look like they were going to fall into the latter of the two territories just yet. Well, maybe that one monster girl, Subaru had been busy regaling him with stories last night and he could just tell she was going to be a damn nightmare.

"As for what will be taught to you today, Fujinaga and Niijima-sama were not too descript in their lesson plans. Instead, my brother and I, put our heads together and we think we came up with a rather interesting idea." Hiroto grinned again, even if he seemed to be more reserved and professional in both body language and spoken verbiage, they couldn't help but think that the apple didn't fall far from the tree when it came to him and Hideyoshi. "Ah, come now, don't look at me like that. We're professionals! Even if Hideyoshi has his own way about showing that. All we suggested to Morales-sensei was to simply take this class time and break the ice, as some people like to say."

Now, that got everyone's ears perked up. They may have only been together short of 48 hours, but they were going to be staying for at least three years. Possibly more, the time table on their "rehabilitation" wasn't so clear.

"As much as I would be loathed to take, Hiroto-san's advice, this is necessary evil." Another curt reply, loaded with all kinds of passive aggressiveness as Oscar took another scan of the class. He was already making a mental note of all the new members, shuffling them about in his head based on assume "chemistry" between one another. Realistically, he expected this idea to go down like a lead balloon, but if that meant Hiroto had to be burned in the process then so be it. The parasite would be able to worm is way back into the good books quickly anyway.

"Therefore, under our supervision, we'd like you to branch out, as some people like to say." Hiroto continued, slimy smile and all. They didn't know if it was the brash Hideyoshi or the calculating Hiroto was one that they disliked the most at the moment. Noticing the somewhat blank looks that were being tossed his way, edging in between the skeptical and the terrified in Akashi's case, a little smirk came to his lips as another bit of information slithered into his mind "Oh, and just in case you already had some kind of relationship, whatever little you might have created, you're going to be paired up with whom you fought with. Hideyoshi was very pushy on that point if I recall correctly."

That elicited a very noticeable "Eep!" from Akashi, driving attention right back over to where the resident full on furry was sweating buckets. Fiddling with his thumbs underneath the desk, he still kept his almost permanent smile on his face, but it wouldn't take the most observant person in the world to se the straining crinkles around his eyes as he tried to keep them from shutting by themselves. The slight glance over his shoulder to Ani, a failed endeavour if the speed he disengaged with her was anything to go by, did no wonders to him.

Not seeing a lot of movement at his end, Oscar clicked his tongue before making one last comment to the class for the time being. "Also, seeing as some of our wonderful new members decided to no show us, don't think you'll get away clean. All of you without a partner better pair up, because it's either staring at a blank wall for an hour, or you can honour what we told you to do and speak to each other. The choice is yours at the end of the day, but you should know what's really good for you."

Seeing the gazes they were being levelled with, a demanding one coming from their "teacher" and a calculating one coming from Hiroto, the class began to reluctantly move off to whom they had been paired with. Akashi with no part of him looking forward to having to be near Ani or Haru for any length of time, Mei didn't seem to be paying attention in general as her eyes were scanning across the room with her probably being the one person that was happy enough to stare at the wall, and it looked like it had fallen on Mahoro to go over to where Shiki was sat. The others just mingling about, with Kagekatsu looking most displeased, even if it left him with one of the more agreeable people in Fukuro.

Now, Shiki, just like Mei, didn't seem to be paying attention. Although, in her case, it appeared like something else had grafted her attention away from what was being said. She was presently making sure her desk was clear of dust or something to that effect, if the way she was wiping her hand across it and then periodically checking it was something to be noted.

As the Ink Quirk user ambled on over to where the petite dragon girl was sat, earphones in but no music blasting through them this time, Mahoro pulled up a chair from one of the spare desks that had been left empty by the conspicuous absence of some of their "classmates". She placed it on the opposite side of Shiki's desk, allowing the two girls to look at each other face to face as opposed to the awkward movement of having to peer over one another's shoulders.

Or at least, the plan was for them to be face to face. Mahoro was definitely hoping that would at least be something to bring some civility to this place, face to face communication was the basic centre point of basic human interaction. However, she found Shiki with her head bowed low, the dragon girl either not registering that she was there or not caring. Either way, there was only so much once could do with someone who was initially unwilling to engage.

Mahoro tossed her mind back to the fight the two of them had shared, and the time spent within both the infirmary and the observation deck. Both those places were good benchmarks to start observing more about the people making up her class, especially the observation deck. First impressions were everything, after all, and Shiki hadn't really made one if Mahoro was going to be brutally honest.

Even when they all had first shuffled their way into that soul sucking white void of the Meeting Room, Mahoro having been one of the earlier arrivals, she had found Shiki stuffed away in the corner. Sure, no one was going to have this instantaneous reaction and start creating friendships out of thin air, the world wasn't some third-rate story by a fourth-rate writer where people trusted each other with their life after one conversation, but the others, even Mahoro, had at least tried to say something to someone.

Shiki, erstwhile, had said nothing to nobody until she was physically forced to by Subaru shining the spotlight right on top of her. Right as if he was doing it on purpose because something she had done had irritated him somehow, which was more than 100% the truth behind that act. Even at that, her transformation had been jarring and abrupt. Her language even more so.

"I will destroy the world!"

Not going to lie, Mahoro couldn't help but think that was maybe the tiniest, little bit drastic of an escalation from 0-60 in no time at all. Still, that did add a certain air, so to speak, with Shiki. It left her wondering, was this always what she was like underneath it all? One of those "I'll keep it all inside but I hate everyone single one of you," people? Or was she another one of the people that just went a bit loopy whenever their Quirk came out. Mahoro was one to know about adverse side effects to Quirks, she could still feel that awful aftertaste in her mouth… At least it was worth it in the end, though.

"Oh…" And the second she decided she was going to check up on her nightly work Shiki decided to perk up, her voice soft and even. If the body language and general attitude wasn't enough, it was the voice of a timid, and maybe a little bit scared, child that didn't know what they were doing or where they were. "I didn't notice you… My bad…"

Ah, finally! She spoke! Even if it was apologetic right off the bat, which was almost never a good sign for someone's general disposition, it at least gave something for Mahoro to work with. Not to toot her own horn or anything, but she had more than her fair share of experience with these sorts of people. Not to say that this would be an easy task, but hand it to someone else and she would already be buying tickets to the funeral. "Ah, hello! Shiki-san, was it? If it's okay of me to call you that?" Mahoro said, easing into the conversation and hoping to lead Shiki along with her.

Shiki, on her end, just looked down. Her attention was back on the table, almost as if she was deliberately avoiding eye contact with Mahoro for whatever reason. "Yeah… Sure…" There was little much else she could say or do in that moment, her interest wasn't even on the class or the people in the first place.

Even since she had stepped into the Foundation, she had been overwhelmed for lack of a better term. The sight of her saviour, the person who had dragged her away rom that hell was something to worship. Okay, she hadn't expected the others to be fifty different shades of insane, but if Niijima-san trusted them then she would too. Perhaps, it was a little too rude of her to turn away from Fujinaga-san just like she did, she hoped that didn't leave too much of a bad impression, but she couldn't help but have that niggling feeling she had really done him wrong…

And that fight… She didn't remember much of it, only waking up in the infirmary with the splinters in her chest and the hole gaping courtesy of the person now sat across from her. All she really knew was that she had let perhaps a little too much of her dragon side out, and it made her want to curl up into a ball almost. For her to just go, stand in the corner, no one watching her, and think about how she had made a mistake that was now going to cost her dearly.

She could already feel the walls closing in her, the stuffy air that hadn't been let out of the room in God knows how long that made even heaving a breath impossible, and the incessant demands of "Oi! Stop moping and get out here!" and "You! Why aren't you in uniform!" and it was all flooding back into her like a tidal wave.

"Shiki-san! Shiki-san! Shiki-san!" Mahoro called out to her, not really urgently or anything, nor was there any kind of physical contact such as a hand on the shoulder, but it was roughly enough for Shiki to be snapped out of whatever web she had tangled herself in. Placing a hand on her own chest, Mahoro took another breath before speaking again. "Ah, wonderful. I hope I'm not intruding too much here, but you looked like you were in a bit of pain. Frankly, that's not a pleasant scene to see on anybody. Everything okay?"

Shiki looked up again, this time making direct eye contact before diverting her attention away to the other groups. From the looks of things, the trio grouping of Ani, Akashi, and Haru was going down about as well as one could expect. Akashi looked to be the most nervous person on planet Earth, Haru seemed to be mumbling and muttering something to himself that Shiki couldn't quite make out, and Ani was being the closest thing to an animal in the room. Even after all the people that had animal-based Quirks!

Another glance revealed Kagekatsu stuck trying to hold his tongue with Hisumi and Mei snooping around his new clothes. Hisumi wondering on the quality of the fabric, and Mei simply wondering how valuable they might end up being. Y'know, for business reasons. Nothing less nothing more. In the background of all of this, Fukuro was interjecting into the conversation whenever he could. Happy that he could at least be a part of something that wasn't so inherently violent from the start.

Really, she was looking anywhere, at anything to get her mind off the girl across from her. No matter how sweet those words might have sounded in that gentle tone, there was no use for Shiki to listen to them. It wasn't like she had anything to say anyway. The words said to her, they dripped with a kind of emotion she hadn't heard in a long time, and she would be foolish if she would ever believe in that kind of tone ever again.

Mahoro, on her end of things, paused in what she was going to say next. This really was going to be an interesting challenge to say the very least, experience was often the very best teacher for these kinds of things, but there was almost always an exception to the rule. Looking over her shoulder, right at where Hiroto and Oscar happened to be, she could see the two of them staring very intently at each individual group or paring. Hiroto with an almost predatory gaze, and Oscar with a kind of bored, exasperated look as if he had been worn down over the course of a day that had barely started.

Turing her head back to the real issue at hand, she was about to launch into the next plan of attack, maybe trying to do something about her hobbies? In an attempt to try and bring something of worth right out of Shiki's impenetrable lack of communication. However, just as soon as she had opened her mouth to begin, there was a sound that ended up rocking the entire class and brough their collective attention back up to the door.

The sound of knocking at the door was clearly something that Oscar hadn't been expecting to hear, the slight groan and the raking of his hair for the umpteenth time today just added more to the eye roll he did as he called out for whoever was on the other side. "You better have an important reason, we're in the middle of something and I'd much rather you not interrupt if you're just doing this for the hell of it."

That got the knocking to stop and the room sat in silence for what was only five seconds or so, but what felt so much longer with everyone's glances locked on the same place at the same time. Another sound, this time what sounded like someone taking a really, really deep breath before the door was finally pushed open with all the desire of a limp party popper.

"…Bad time?" Now that… That was a voice that definitely turn a few heads. It had the kind of raspiness that one would expect if you had been screaming into the wardrobe for about half of the day, it also had the great misfortune of perfectly mimicking what it was like whenever you tried to speak after being strangled with your trachea crushed into multiple pieces. Not really helping was the deep baritone that played in conjunction to just send shivers down the spine of everyone that heard it.

Most of everyone was expecting a comment to come from their teacher, however they found nothing spill out of Oscar's mouth nor was there anything come out of Hiroto's lips but an amused chuckle. Someone was clearly having a bit too much fun seeing gaping reactions.

"Ummm…" The man's glassy eyes, a stark black, surveyed the landscape before him. He had been led here without so much as a peep from his guide as to what he was actually going to be walking in on. Pulling back some loose strands of hair, his wavy back locks reaching the nape of his neck but parted in the middle, which allowed some of the strands to sometimes break out of the neat crop, he walked into the room a bit. "I-I'm in the correct place, r-right?"

His gait seemed… Off to say the least. It was an odd thing to focus on, but the way he moved looked so robotic and so formulaic, yet with the kind of slithery movement that someone would impart onto some seasoned apex predator. Already, it was proving very difficult to pin down what this guy really was. His body language and voice were totally at odds with the kind of demure and anxious verbiage he was using.

The silence of the Foundation members was broken when the voice of Hiroto came through into the scene. "Ah, Migoro-san, so nice to finally meet you in person. I trust your journey here was well, nothing too bumpy? I know my brother can get a bit heavy with the wheel from time to time~." Cue another bit of side-eye from Oscar, the new introduction noticing the bevy of rings that the teacher had on his right hand, and him also noticing the pretty clear animosity that was brewing right there.

Still, the now named Migoro-san, bowed his head as Hiroto slinked forward. Hiroto was taller than the other, but standing at 6'3 was already a tough enough ask. Nevertheless, the new arrival had a finally impressive height of 6'0 all to himself, and the impressive looking build to match it. "Ah-h, yes, yes, yes! It was all fine! Fujinaga-san helped me here perfectly fine as well!" The jumpy nature to his speech was really jarring the longer everyone listened in to him.

Hiroto smirked again, looking over the simple attire the other was wearing. A simple black suit with matching black slacks, a white button-down dress shirt, and a pair of black dress shoes. Nice to see that good taste still hadn't gone out of style. "Care to introduce yourself?" Hiroto said, removing the gloves from his hands, revealing the teal polished nails underneath.

"Sure…!" Making the same practiced but jittery movements, the black-haired male found himself right in front of all of the class and nearly went wide eyed in that very instance. Sweat beads forming on his forehead, not exactly for traditional reasons as he surveyed the class another time and hunched over with furrowed brows, he introduced himself to the people that would be helping him decided his future. "My-y name is Yuusui Migoro…! I… Hope we can all get along with each other!" He said, quickly bowing again like the perfect polite gentlemen, right before his eyes were set on a… Certain individual…

Whilst the rest of the world moved in normal time, to Yuusui just that one glance had sent him into feeling like he was sinking in quicksand and slowly spiralling down into insanity.

He had to be seeing things.

He HAD TO BE seeing things, there was NO WAY this was possible!

However, before he could even start to question that individual in person, another question was pitched to him. This one just so happened to be asked by a curious looking Mei, who had finally stopped searching around for hidden cameras after having stopped bothering Kagekatsu over his clothes. "So… How old are you? Twenty plus?" It had a kind of endearing inquisitive tone come out of it, even if the question was as blunt as could possibly be. The half glare from Hiroto at the lack of diplomacy was the least of what she was bothered about though.

Yuusui tilted his head, the strands of hair he had fixed earlier falling back out of his crop. "I'm only nineteen years old, why'd ask?" He said, quirking an eyebrow at the end of his sentence. He had always been told he looked older than he was, not in a pejorative way, but did he really already look like he was that far in his life? Suppose those comments about him looking like he was some kind of experienced K-Pop idol weren't too far out of left field now.

Reading the room quickly and seeing how his "assistant" for the day was now glaring at everyone who had now thrown their hands up to ask questions, Oscar seized authority again. Shaking his head, he uttered the next part reluctantly. "Settle down, settle down. So, we have a new arrival I wasn't made privy to, thanks for that by the way, and I know we like to throw questions at people we meet for the first time. However, I will not tolerate such a breakdown of order in my class. So, Hiroto-san and Yuusui-kun will be going off to do the required administration for him to join us, and the rest of you will be free to do your own thing, happy?"

That last part sounded good, particularly to the people who had been having a torrid time, Akashi, with the people they had been paired up with. Plus, this class had been getting really boring and stuffy when they realised that perhaps there wasn't that much talk about yet other than profusely apologising for the injuries they caused. Some time to themselves, finally being able to decorate their dorms being somewhere high on all their mental lists, would be a nice thing right in this moment.

Although, there was something else that was going through their minds, and something that spoke the loudest in the people that had bled the hardest.

HE'S JOINING US?!

Being one of the few people with better things to do, thank you very much, Ikariko hadn't ended up going to the class, it didn't take a genius to figure out what the surface level reason for it was. Realistically speaking, one glance at him was enough to figure out why he was never going to even consider being there for one solitary second. Did these people really think he was going to be pussy footing around with some "class"? Did they already have to be so goddamn annoying?

He didn't want to hear them prattle on about completely useless topics, he didn't want to hear the bored out of their students tap repeatedly on those fucking desks, he didn't need to hear that he was some kind of broken individual with some kind of second chance dangling in front of him. He knew that last part very fucking well, thank you very much!

Either way, as he sat in his room, making sure everything was properly in place for future decorating purposes, he made doubly sure that all of the locks he had managed to install on the door were shut as tight as possible. The last goddamn thing he wanted in his life was more people being annoying and barging into his business, and he already had a few ideas about the people whose picture he was going to stick up on a dart board one of these days. Plus, the last thing he needed was a repeat of when he came back from breakfast only to find his room turned into a ramshackle mess, as if someone had turned around everything he could whilst looking for something.

Ikariko liked to keep his word, and if he ever found the person who had done this and caused him all this hassle, he was going to make sure they were personally and with utmost politeness to never dare step foot on his turf again. Otherwise, they may not like what they were destined to become.

Grumbling to himself as he fiddled with the last lock and finally got it into place after what seemed like a fortnight, this one would definitely make the whole thing impenetrable or so help him God, Ikariko sat back across the side of the bed. His head was perched just on the side of the bed as the rest of his body sagged just beneath him, standing up at this point was just far too much of a pain.

She mightn't have looked like it, but the stab wound in his neck and the ripped cartilage in his knee from the arrow from Yua was some serious lasting damage. Never mind that this place couldn't seem to buy a fucking doctor to save their life, despite looking like they had enough money to bank roll a building this fucking large.

Still, it was nothing that hadn't been done before, nor was it something that had been done with ten thousand times more vitriol and intent to kill behind it. Really, when he looked at it from the long term point of view, it was slim pickings and he got his own back on her towards the end. So, at the end, he still got one over on the squirt and his record was still intact.

Scanning the room, every nook and cranny at that, because who knows what this place was hiding? Ikariko began to look around for a particularly ideal spot for a little project he intended to start. It was perhaps going to be the most important part of his stay here, and it was rather important he find a place where it wasn't going to end up withering straight away. All hell would break loose, and the Foundation would be torn asunder if that was even close to what happened. Much more so if someone dared to invade his room again.

Shutting his eyes, the chatter of a few people beginning to reach his eardrums, signifying the assumed end of the class, Ikariko turned to his side. If he was going to be given free time, he was at least going to spend it wisely. Waking up at the ass crack of dawn wasn't for everyone after all.

When he had left the Foundation for another day at the daily grind, Haru Hinata couldn't help but be grateful that he was even allowed to leave the place to start off with. Whenever Morales-sensei had told them that they were free to do what they wanted, he had expected that it would of course be within the confines of the Foundation, he had even handed in his notice the day or two before he left for the Foundation that he likely wouldn't be returning.

However, he couldn't help but be happy that he was allowed out of the Foundation for his work. Something about so long as he doesn't do anything monumentally stupid, and doesn't mention the Foundation by name, everything should be okay. It was a hell of a lot of trust to put in him, but if they were willing to put that trust in him then he was going to pay it back tenfold whenever he realistically could. Even if he was… No, he shouldn't give into those thoughts just yet, there was still time to turn things around and to stop that from happening.

Either way as he passed through the doors, greeted happily by his boss, the ever wonderful spiky haired Hiro, and one of his most important co-workers, the ever energetic Mira, he felt like he had returned to some sense of normality after the insanity. And what was this ever so great sense of normality for Haru? Well… A maid café… Yeah… He wasn't proud of it to mention it others, and realistically others probably weren't going to be excepting of it….

As he passed through the double doors at the back, he picked up the uniform that he always kept in tip-top condition. You see, there was one thing about his looks that he actually like, and that was his ability to seamlessly use some of his more androgynous looks to his advantage. As he dressed himself up in the uniform, brought up the ribbon-laden stockings, slapped on the headband between his ears, and finally slipped his feet into the black dress shoes, he was ready for work.

At least it looked like today was going to be peaceful…

"Well, yes, I think it's a good report for, like, a subpar journalist." Came the sound of somewhat whiny, nasally voice that sounded like it belonged on some petulant school child.

"What the hell are you on about?! You think you could write it any better, you moron?!"

…Or at least the day had been peaceful. Right up until the sound of that argument decided it want to play chicken with the sound barrier, disrupting just about everyone's daily grind and forcing them to look over at the combative pair.

"Think I could? Nah, nah, nah, I know I can write it better than you, Babe!" Came the voice of the male currently engaged in the vitriolic verbal fight. Haru couldn't quite make out his features, the distance too great and the risk of triggering it even further too large, save for the wavy, black hair that seemed to pool around just on top of his shoulders. His head was turned away in general, not even looking at the woman across from him, making it hard to ascertain more of what he looked like. He was, instead, finding whatever he was doing on his laptop far more interesting.

"For the love of all…" The woman, a very well presented and well-dressed one, making Haru wonder what they were doing here in the first place, began. It was self-evident, the longer everybody watched, that she wanted to tug out her blonde hair without a second thought. She didn't know why she still put up with this absolute clown of a "reporting partner," it was like some cosmic joke was being played on her. "Look at me when you're talking shit to me! More importantly, back up your shit-talking!" She yelled, tossing a notepad beside her at the back of the monitor.

The ebony haired man made some kind of non-committal, gargled sound. Like he was in some kind of obscene agony as he tore his eyes up from his laptop, scowl coating his slightly touched up lips and poisonous blue eyes that had just the slightest hint of pink eyeshadow dabbed onto them. "Ugh, first off, this laptop is worth more money than you will ever make in your life, bitch. Second off, do I really have to do all the work again? This was your pony, I didn't want to touch that stupid place, and yet here we are in this sorry excuse for… Whatever the hell this place is… Like, seriously? This is where you wanted to meet back up? I walked down here earlier, took some fucking side road, and there was a fucking stench a mile wide! Wouldn't you know who won the pony for stupid fucking decisions!? I'd continue but making fun of the mentally disabled is kinda frowned upon in modern society."

Wow. Now, Haru had seen his fair share of arguments amongst patrons. That wasn't out of the ordinary. Especially given with how this place just so happened to be situated in one of those hot spots, for whatever fucking reason that was. Maybe the universe just felt like laughing at him? Deciding he was always going to be present around the time where really big arguments broke out, every other co-worker usually reported smooth sailing. Him? Nah, this was clearly someone targeting Isaphael! Yeah, yeah, that was it!

"Okay… Okay… Look… You make the adjustments you want, I'll proof it, and then I'll send it to the editor. Deal?" The woman sound exasperated, her previous yelling and angry tone still present, but it felt like it had been overridden by the greater desire of just getting the whole thing over and done with.

A chuckle from the male's end, followed by the flaunting of the notepad, made her quickly regret those words. "Well look here, I always knew the dumb blonde stereotype was fake! You got some smarts, don't ya, Toots? This whole thing will be done before you even rest your pretty little head as you count the bank you're gonna make from this "Crimson Coliseum" shit! Your name all over the article despite it being all my work, sounds about right, doesn't it?" Both backhanded and insulting, it took a special type of obnoxious asshole to hit those two marks in flawless fashion. It would be impressive if it weren't so offensive to the other party.

Haru turned away not long after that, the woman had taken to having her head in her hands, mumbling to herself as the man got to work with blinding speed. The long and short of it, and all that mattered at the end of the day, was that the argument had passed without the need for there to be any intervention on the brow haired male's end. Frankly, the day at the Foundation was already tiring enough, he didn't wish to spend too much time fussing about things that weren't all that relevant to him.

Although, the name "Crimson Coliseum" did ring a few bells in his head. He could have sworn that he had heard something about a raid there a while back, could that be exactly what they were discussing about? Eh, at the end of the day, though, he wasn't going to get involved in this. He had a job to handle, and one of the customers had just called him over…

Ugh, time to slip back into his practiced tap dance… Just wonderful…

Nothing made him happier than when the shift was over. Don't get him wrong, he didn't hate working there. Far from it, he loved being there every second that he could. It was nice to have some kind of sustainability that couldn't be ripped away from him because of petty and vindictive reasons, same could be said about it not being cultivated by him just to be handed off to someone else for the hell of it.

Either way, it was a break and a half that he really needed. Whilst he may have loved the job, dealing with people was a real pain in the ass sometimes. That argument he had eavesdropped on was just one of many that day, and whilst that one had managed to end without the need to come to blows, a few others hadn't been so lucky. Looks like the Police would have a lot of extra paperwork to do today, if the number of vans that had arrived over the course of the day was anything to go off of.

Plus, there were always going to be the more unsavoury customers that liked to play a bit fast and loose with the concept. He was lucky for people like Mira and Hiro then, always able to take the heat away whenever the situation got far too hot for him to handle. Turns out, having a Quirk like his wasn't able to solve every issue in the world.

In the end, though, as he stepped the doors, dressed normally, and into the dead of night to return to the Foundation, it could have been worse today. The extra workload was an anathema to him, though, especially considering what had in that ramshackle classroom "teaching" session. The less he would have to deal with that rabid wild animal that called itself human the better.

He didn't know what it was within him, whether it was just a primal gut instinct or if it was some kind of weird experience telling him it was true, but the two people that had been sent to do it had something deathly wrong about them. Oscar just seemed… Off. Like, something about him just wasn't all there. On the other end of things, Hiroto, the supposed twin of the person who had been leering over of them like he was watching fish in an aquarium, just made him squirm every time those mismatched eyes met with his.

He wanted to believe, with all of his heart, that this Foundation was exactly what it had been presented to him during that fateful night. However, whilst he may have only spent the grand total of two days in there, the whole aura was something completely different to what he was expecting. He had expected the gaggle of misfits, that much was going to be obvious. However, what was so foreign and unexplainable, was the fact that the staff seemed to be just as in need of help and care as they did.

The less he thought about people like Hiroto and Subaru the better, as far as Haru was concerned. They both seemed like ticking timebombs in different ways. He did always want to raise a flag about the nature of the "entrance" exam, but then again, it had been put far more eloquently and bluntly by Joseph than he could ever hope to muster on his own.

Said entrance exam was still weighing heavily on him as well, moving anywhere fast was a humongous challenge as his legs were still dealing with the damage that had been done by Ani. He was still unsure of what her Quirk actually was, since it seemed much more like an amalgam of random cool ideas that just so happened to come about in her. Either way, he was pretty sure that his legs were going to be buckling for the foreseeable future.

At least, as he began to walk back to the Foundation, he didn't have to use the same crutches from yesterday. Still, it wouldn't stop him from having to occasionally drag his feet across the ground. Nor would it stop him from have to stop on and off to make sure his legs didn't walk out on him, crashing face first to the ground in this area was tantamount to a death sentence.

Ambling through the twisted areas, a prime example of how this part of the city had been mutated by the nonsensical city planning and the copious amount of repairs that had to be done following confrontation after confrontation.

What had previous been a beautiful, urban sprawl, full of glittering buildings and statues that had once marked the great Heroes of decades past, was now a mess of rusted out shitholes and dilapidated ruins off once great buildings.

One of the last remaining buildings from that golden age had just been set alight too, a marvel of modern architecture ripped from the skyline within the space of a few seconds. An intensely powerful, destructive force of a fire Quirk had turned it into nothing more than ash in the wind. From… Experience… Haru knew Quirks like that had to have existed at some point, but even hearing about the speed of it all was almost awfully awe-inducing.

Regardless, it was no use trying to figure it out with no information. Once he arrived at the Foundation, he would be able to spend some time and note down the possibilities. No one paid much attention to him, so they wouldn't notice if he was slightly late either way.

…Or that had been the plan, right up until the first fleeting fumes of that retched stench penetrated his senses. It was overpowering, and his already weak knees decided now would be the opportune time to totally buckle under the weight of it all, leaving him helpless to escape the smell of what ever carrion had found its way to an early grave.

Needless to say, too, but the mutations were not helping in the slightest. The biggest annoyances of his day-to-day life had just ramped up tenfold, making him hear every drop of blood that stained the ground, every rotting organ, and the distinct smell of ash circling around like a tornado in the air.

On instinct, he had shut his eyes the first time he had caught wind of that awful smell, and as he fought back up to his feet, the incessant alarm bells in his head triggering the primal response to either stand your ground or flee, he didn't open them again until he felt a warm liquid begin to trail up one of his trouser legs.

It was warm, and not like in the lukewarm sense where it was in the undefinable area that psychopaths liked to call warm, but it was, instead, scorching hot. Just like you had left your hand on the stove by accident and didn't notice until it was already turning purple causing the skin to peel back on itself.

Within a few moments, Haru was darting to get out of it, whatever it was. His legs were already damaged enough and going to see Sateriasis and Hideyoshi was not high on his list of priorities, neither was having a massive burn scar on his leg for that matter.

Running, however, just brought him to the terrible destination sooner, though. His right leg crashing into whatever had been causing this stench in the first place, causing him to go ass over tip on the other side. Of course, the landing hurt, especially with how he had smacked his head on the concrete and the twisting of his legs that bent and swirled on impact.

However, it was nothing compared to what he saw in front of him the second his eyes snapped open. Many a time he had seen something like this state in the past, experience of being in the vicinity of death was nothing new to members of the Foundation after all. Despite that, there was nothing, zilch, in his experience that would make him privy to something this utterly visceral and disgusting.

What lay before him was none other than what was once a human if it could even be considered to be the remains of one at this point. Trying to pinpoint limbs was an impossible task, there was something that vaguely like a leg. However, it also appeared as if someone had run it over with a steamroller and then ran it through a vice with how flat and mutilated it was. No arms were present either, having either been reduced to mere atoms or being so small that it wasn't even visible to the human eye.

Scuttling away on his backside, Haru scampered back up to his feet with ragged breaths assaulting his chest and lungs. An unwilling eye scanned over the rest of his body as he also fought to make sure he didn't contaminate things further by having chunks of his lunch all over the body.

The most sickening feature was the utter lack of a face. The head was still attached, like it was some sick sense of mercy that, even after all of the brutality, the persons that did this deed were kind enough to at least leave it attached.

The same couldn't be said for the face though, a seared mask of death as the hideous boils of boiling blood looked as if they were seconds away from bursting at any second. It was a totally incomprehensible scene with a victim holding an unidentifiable identity.

Yet, across the back, carved into what had remained of visible skin, was a bloody reminder of what it was like to work around these parts. About the only thing on this corpse that had some degree of visibility that wasn't twisted beyond the human ability to perceive this gruesome art form.

"15/21"

It was about the only thing the mangled body showed off that wasn't mutilated to the point that its origin couldn't be determined. Whomever had committed this atrocity had a level of violence and brutality that exceed even some of the worst villains Haru had ever read about.

And attached to it all? The nearest wall gave the indication of just who was behind this atrocity.

"FOLLOW THE BUZZARDS."

A/N: Soo, yeah. I got this chapter out far later than I wanted this shit happen, but I got out it nevertheless. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter for what it was worth, and I'll look to get the next chapter out whenever I can. I'm going to be a bit busy towards the end of this month, there's a lot of stuff going on at the moment, so I'll see you next when I update again.