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)

15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Reckoning

In comparison to Arius, Kagekatsu, and Yuusui, the rest of the Foundation's new intake seemed to have finally found their grove in the otherwise hellish mess they now lived in. Whilst it was still true that many of them could get lost at a moment's notice, it had become much easier to recover from it than it had before. In other words, they were no longer stuck in the ass crack of anywhere with more than basic intimation and incredible patience to get them back to where they needed to be.

Honestly, in Akashi's honest view, having all this space to be in was both a blessing and a curse. A curse for the aforementioned reasons, which only seem to be magnified by the fact no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find the right way to anything come hell or high water. It was like placing the horse right in front of the water and watching it go directly for the pile of manure behind it.

However, it was just as much a blessing in comparison to his previous life. He'd always be reminded of it every time his rusty old shackles trailed across the ground, but if he looked at it that way then nothing was ever going to get fully done! The fact that this place was so spacious was so impressive to him, even the comparatively cramped dorms offered something unique, allowing them to customise it to their hearts' content.

Which, of course, Akashi had taken to like a fish to water. Whilst he hadn't wanted to change much of the place, as it was so much better than his old abode and they were so nice as to give it to him with the low, low cost of shitting himself every time he saw Ani, Akashi did end up making a few little additions of his own.

First off, and he could think the almighty Kyte Niijima for this one, the desk he had been gifted was a veritable godsend. It had allowed him to add so many of the little homely touches this place needed to feel even better, the little bowl of sweets and pitcher, filled with tea at this current point time, was going to be the perfect combo when he got heavy into the tests they were going to be slammed with. Even if it was a unique place, to say the least, the trappings of old never went away like a snake shedding its skin did.

Then, recognising that he had the appropriate space for once in his life, which wasn't tied up in some kind of insane deal he had to cut, there was a small area away from his desk. The perfect place in both temperature, a cool breeze being afforded to him by the Foundation's ventilation system, and comfort away from the rock-hard bed. It also provided him with the perfect place to sit down and eat food that was cooked and still hot or warm, of course, provided 'Mr Vamp' would allow him to. He hadn't seen the Vampire Lord all that much.

Come to think of it, for the man that had offered them their salvation and promised to fix everything for them, he had done a complete about-face. To say that Akashi thought Kyte's teaching style was a little hands-off would be an understatement, it was like a Bus Driver sitting in the back of the bus and then complaining when the bus inevitably crashed. It was perplexing, to say the least.

But who was he to judge? He had been so graceful as to accept Akashi in the first place when there was no need to bring the human doormat into his Foundation. For that, perhaps the catboy would be able to excuse the more overt failings of this place. Nothing in this world was perfect at the end of the day and pretending like there was such a thing could end no other way than poorly.

Although, his magnanimous mercy was not infinite. He might have had more faith in this place than some of the others, but as he looked down at the cuffs that had become a second skin to him, the painful reminder of what could be weighed down on his shoulders. That was never happening again… Come Hell or high water, he'd make damn sure of that.

The catboy puffed out a heavy breath, calming himself down from the peak he had worked himself to the summit of. The eerie smile, the opposite of the many resting bitch faces in the Foundation, stayed plastered to his lips like a face-hugger. Even if he was mad underneath, people would find it hard to know for sure with that Stepford smile getting in the way. No matter how hollow it became given the situation.

Today was a better day than the ones prior. The less Akashi thought about the horrors of the training, the happier he became. He hadn't come into this place with the greatest muscle mass known to man, and Subaru putting him to the metaphorical dogs in the workout exposed that for all to see. Dragging himself back to his room had been one of the more embarrassing moments of his life so far.

Luckily, they had been afforded a day off today. The schedule looked all nice and fun at first, with barely any training sessions, but now everyone and Akashi, in particular, knew why that was the case. As the catboy reclined in that same side space as before, cupping his hands around a warm mug, his muscles, however many there were, ached.

As a result, it had been resolved quietly amongst them that they would return to their rooms for the better part of it, especially the mutants, who had been put through the far more intensive training. Not that Akashi was trying to rubbish what the others had gone through! When he had awoken and his eyes readjusted themselves to the light, seeing all that barbed wire and the chasm between the two groups was enough to make him shit himself from the other end. The fact there weren't more injuries was frankly a miracle.

Peace was what everyone needed the most right about now, even if the itch to explore had ruffled a few feathers, including Akashi himself. Whilst he wanted nothing more to sit down in his room, nursing a cup of tea and letting his weary body pick up the recuperation it needed, something within his head desperately wanted to know more about the people he was here with.

Minus Ani, naturally. The faint muffling and the occasional squelches he heard through the walls next to him were enough to turn him away for good, cats might have had nine lives, but he certainly wasn't going to be in the business of losing his only one! He wasn't some kind of madman!

However, he found his mind wandering as he took another sip from the cup. On the other side of him was Joseph, and his curiosity ran wild with the ideas of what the energy demon could possibly have in there. Was he some kind of secret softie, with all the colourful stuffed animals in the world? As much as that image made Akashi laugh to himself, there was a net-zero chance it was true. The other alternative was that he was some brooding emo, room caked in black and likely covered in posters of some of the edgier heroes out there in the world. Although, that was also another scenario that made the catboy double back himself, slapping himself across the face for assuming something so stereotypical.

It went to show how far he had fantasied about it, and Joseph wasn't the only person he was curious about. Arius, Kagekatsu, Mahoro, Fukuro, Mei, even Haru and the new kid that he struggled to remember the name of. All of them were easily on his list of rooms to investigate. He needed to know all of them and every inch that had been presented to him.

No matter how much he tried to sit still, he found his leg bouncing up and down. His tail was doing much the same thing, adding more to the scene with a furious wagging overtaking it. Every second he spent thinking about it, the more he just wanted to get out and do it. All he was doing now was wasting time, and he could make good use of it if he learned more about his comrades through their rooms!

Before he knew it, Akashi had talked himself into jumping up to his feet, cup placed to the side, the heavy cuffs clinking and creaking upon him getting to a two-footed position. The joy he had infected himself with over the thoughts, the happy optimism… he hadn't felt since he first stepped foot here. Was it such a bad thing to indulge in it a little bit? Akashi certainly didn't think it was.

Slowly, he cracked open a sliver of his door and poked an eye out. There was no need to do so, yet the cold shiver that went down Akashi's back when he thought about running into one of the staff or worse, Ani, made him air on the side of caution for the sake of the skin on his back. With how often Subaru had been trawling about outside, one could never be too careful to avoid appearing in his sadistic crosshairs.

With the coast clear, Akashi stretched out a careful foot and pulled himself bit by bit out of the sanctity of his room. He was at the dogs now… One wrong move and his guts would be for the garters, the CCTV cameras poking at him from either end of the corridor did nothing to still his nerves.

His immediate first thought was to check Joseph's room, his hand rising to knock on the door before his brain caught up with him. The second before he made the fateful choice, which would likely be his death knell, his eyes widened, and he realised just what would likely happen to him should he follow through. In Akashi's honest opinion, he was not in the business of sustaining a Kagekatsu-esque beating like the one the Catboy had witnessed in the cafeteria on their first day. Shivers were still going down his back at how brutal the beatdown was.

Yet, his curiosity continued to try and get the better of him, ready to turn him into the living example of that famous proverb. Against his much better judgement, the furry hand rapped upon the waiting door, and Akashi held his breath for what would happen next. If he could get out of this without a single scratch on his body, or even one or two bruises, he'd consider this to be a flying success. "JoJo? You in there at all?"

However, he was greeted by nothing but silence. A still, eerie silence that was betrayed by the heavy breathing Akashi's hyper-sensitive ears picked up. Joseph was in there alright, waiting for something… At least, that's what Akashi was thinking about. Realistically speaking, there was no way he could know from his position in front of the door.

Once more, sweat dripping down his face, Akashi rapped on the door. This time around it was louder, factoring in the idea that maybe, just maybe, the Energy Demon had either not heard him or was fast asleep. "Everything alright in there? Are you asleep? If so, I can just come back later!"

Yet again, he was greeted by the same heavy breathing and the same otherwise silence, making him release the pent-up breath he had been holding the whole time. His whole form slumped over, shoulders rolling back as he got rid of all the tension that had been building up in them, his tail also retreated from being stuck in between his legs. Every part of his body had been more or less ready to run for the hills, and every part of his body exclaimed in anxious joy at their survival.

It remained a disappointment, though. Even if the idea was brand new in his head, created out of a sense of boredom, he had been looking forward to seeing more of his classmates' intimate lives. He supposed he shouldn't have expected much from Joseph, who was as stiff as an iron rod at the best of time, but it did make his smile sag that little bit more than usual.

But that smile immediately picked up when he remembered one thing! There were more people here than just Joseph! That thought alone was enough to bring back his crushed optimism as he started to pace back and forth in front of the dorm rooms. An extra pep in his step, no less, as he skipped from door to door.

Of course, he ignored Ani's like the plague. Ikariko's was always off-limits by the sounds of things, something he could infer from the fact the other teen had scarcely turned up. Whilst Akashi might have fancied himself as being able to bridge a divide, he also rather liked not being turned into a fur pelt, so it was in his best interest to not poke the incredibly violent, grumpy cat that was Ikariko.

As he continued to pace, wondering who was in and if any of them had left to do something much more entertaining, a sound reached his twitching ears, causing them to turn on a dime in the sound's direction. Akashi wasn't an expert in music by any stretch of the definition, but it would make him an idiot if he didn't recognise the faint sound of Rock he heard coming from Kagekatsu's room.

His smile widened as he approached the door and knocked on it with the same level of enthusiasm as before. "Nakky! Nakky! Whatcha' listening to? You wouldn't mind if I came in, would you?" Okay, maybe it was very misplaced enthusiasm if Akashi thought that using that accursed nickname was going to wring anything but malice out of Kagekatsu.

Case in point, the second Akashi's words danced across the air, permeated through the door, and reached Kagekatsu's eardrums, the steady, low hum of the music was cut out with severe speed and intensity. The next second he heard the foxboy's common angry, sarcasm-laden blowback. "Oh, yeah, because I would just fucking love to spend my me time with you! Piss off! Don't you have a laser point to go and follow!?"

However, it didn't stime Akashi, who moved closer to the door. He'd dealt with enough ungrateful bastards in his life, reacting to every one of them with scorn was tiring. Instead, he wore the same smile as always as he replied. "Hey, hey, hey, Nakky, no need to be so grumpy. What did I tell you before as well? Just because I may look like one, I'm not going to act like a cat the second something shiny gets dumped in front of my face." Lord knows how many times he'd probably have to repeat that in the coming years, it already felt like thousands of times he had to remind people in the past that correlation didn't equal causation.

"Oh, that's good then!" Kagekatsu snapped back, grunting as Akashi heard the sound of shuffling and something being moved in the background. "Because when I get my hands on you, I won't have to worry about skinning you nine times!" The foxboy stated with sadistic malice, not unlike Subaru's, seeping into his voice as his footsteps.

That was what got Akashi panicking, teeth chattering as he heard the footsteps approaching the door. Only now did the cons of the situation fully dawn on him, just because he had avoided the more overtly murderous bunch of students, it didn't mean he was out of the woods yet! What was Kagekatsu going to do to him?! The catboy fanned himself down, trying to cool down the rising heat within his body.

"How about we try it, Akashit!" By the time Akashi was brave enough to open the eyes he had bolted shut, Kagekatsu had burst open the door with a sinister smirk on his face. The foxboy was dressed down, much like how Yuusui had seen him the other day. What was different this time was the pair of earbuds in his ears, clearly designed to fit into them like a glove, and the copious amount of sweat that made his hair look like he'd had ninety showers in one day.

"P-Please, I have so much to live for!" Akashi panicked, spouting off things he wasn't sure was true at this point. The cowering catboy felt like a little human in the lair of a hungry giant. No matter the noddle arms that would soon be around his throat if he wasn't careful, nor the fact that Akashi had a higher chance of driving himself into a coma than Kagekatsu had of throwing a half-decent punch, he didn't care. His hands were placed out in front of him, head shaking so fast that it looked like a pinball being launched.

Kagekatsu smirked, a sharp tooth poking over the top of his bottom lip, relishing the power for as long as he could. It had been so long since he had last felt it, the few scraps of it he had had since left him longing for even more. "Ah, come on, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. You have eight more after I'm finished with you, isn't that right?" He cooed, patting the other on the head in typical condescending fashion.

Akashi gave a meek meep, feeling the cold, sweaty hand mix with the buckets of sweat that already slimed down his back like a slippery snake slithering slowly seeking to suck the life out of him. "I-I, I just wanted to hang out!" He whimpered, counting his blessings as he put his hands together in prayer.

The foxboy rolled his eyes. Maybe the first few seconds of this were fun, but once that power high had vanished, the joy had been sucked out of it as soon as it had arrived. How on earth did the others he worked with before find this enjoyable all the time? It was boring as shit. "I'd file a fucking restraining order on you faster than "hang out" with you." He grumbled, lapsing back into being grumpy over angry.

For some reason, one that confused Kagekatsu to no end, his words changed the air faster than accidentally telling your child they were adopted. "Oh, come on! Like the system would even work for that!" Akashi's voice was perky, a smile back on his face, but those eyes were anything short of matching the surface-level joy he was presenting. The foxboy's skin crawled the longer his yellow eyes continued to stare until he pushed them down to the floor.

"Whatever…" He muttered, wanting to pretend like this whole thing had never happened and get back to his workout. "Just leave me alone and maybe you'll find someone else you can annoy. I've got shit I want to do." Kagekatsu hoped that would be that, but he had already silently resigned himself to the fact the opposite was much more likely to happen.

With his mojo back, no longer fearing for his precious, precious life, Akashi poked his head around Kagekatsu's body. His slitted green eyes witness the cold, barren state of Kagekatsu's room, his jaw-dropping in shock at how nothing had been altered at all from the surface level. Never mind that the foxboy also apparently didn't have some of the things afforded to Akashi. "Nakky… You live like this?" The genuine look in Akashi's eyes as he stared up at the black-haired fox spoke to the shock he felt.

Electing to ignore the nickname, Kagekatsu moved over to block Akashi's view of the room. A hand was placed on one hip and the other blocking the other side's entrance. "Unlike some people, I didn't need to sort through a pile of random bullshit to feel comfortable." Whilst the voice that spoke was steady, Akashi spied how the foxboy's tail twitched and the grinding of teeth spoke to a different reality being the main factor here.

In many ways, it reminded Akashi of a prison cell. Nothing but the bare necessities were kept, and if anything extra was caught then there would be hell to pay. Which was probably something to do with why Kagekatsu was being so guarded about it, Akashi mused, tapping his chin at that thought. Well, are you sure you wouldn't like me to help you spruce the place up a bit? It's all so awfully dreary and dull, we can make it much more homely for you and hang out all at once!"

Akashi knew his offer had been rebuked before Kagekatsu opened his mouth by the stern look he received back. "Do I need to point you back to about thirty seconds earlier where I threatened that restraining order? Or do I need to make you shit yourself again for you to remember where you're supposed to be?" The foxboy followed his arms, ears and tail now ramrod straight.

Now, understanding that the situation was perhaps never going to get better for him, Akashi cautiously took a step or two back. His voice was slightly shaky, not wanting to experience the kind of terror that seemed to be his daily dose at the Foundation. "Okay… Okay… Okay, I can see that I'm not welcome here… Water under the bridge… I'll leave you to your own devices now… I'm le-"

However, Akashi never got the chance to finish his answer. Instead, he found himself backed into the massive brick wall of feather-laden fur that was the trademark of Fukuro, which caused him to jump about five feet in the air. "Umm, you two good?" The owlbear mumbled, having come out to check on what the commotion was all about, craning his head between the pair.

Kagekatsu was the first to reply, smirking at Akashi, who was taking five to catch the wind that had been knocked out of him. "Oh, I'm better now for sure, Big guy." Kagekatsu's sense of schadenfreude was still as strong as ever, his eyes delighted in witnessing what had happened. It was difficult for him to resist the urge to burst out laughing.

Meanwhile, Fukuro looked down at Akashi. He hadn't noticed he had bumped into someone before he saw a flash of lavender jump out in front of him. He supposed it was his fault at the end of the day, being able to sneak up all silent without alerting the others made him frown as he went to pick the catboy off the ground. "What about you? I'm sorry about what happened, by the way… Wish I could turn it off like it was some kind of Emitter Quirk."

"A-ah, no need to worry about it-t…" Akashi got out, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf after trying to blow down the little pig's brick house. He graciously took the hand that was offered to him, landing on his feet again after stabilising himself. Cuffs weren't the easiest thing to manoeuvre in, after all. "I wasn't paying attention, it's my fault…"

Fukuro shook his head, relinquishing his stabilising on Akashi. "No, no. You had no say in it, I was the one who had to duty to make you aware of what I was doing. Sorry, it's the old training kicking in again…" He rubbed the back of his head, muttering to himself under his breath right after he had said the last part, which made both the other mutants tilt their head up at him.

"Must've paid top dollar for that, then," Kagekatsu commented, folding his arms behind his back, now half paying attention to what was going on. Something ominous hid behind that line, and whilst he wasn't quite sure of what it was, everyone was here for a specific reason at the end of the day… Just what had Fukuro got himself into? Given how he seemed like the only sane human here, it couldn't have been anything too bad, right?

"You'd think, but I never came across it that way." Fukuro shrugged in response, not knowing any other way to put it across. "If anything, I'd get them to pay me for the training, that would've been a lot nicer now that I think about it." He mused to himself, briefly forgetting the other two people present with him.

The awkward silence was more than Kagekatsu was willing to deal with at this point, the foxboy putting his foot down. "Anyway! It has been so nice to be with you all today, now if you would excuse me, I'm going to get back to what I was doing before that human piece of excrement got in my way." Before either of the other two could object, the door was slammed shut, and Akashi could easily imagine the scene of Kagekatsu welding himself shut in there for the foreseeable future.

"Something the matter with him?" Fukuro asked, nodding over to Kagekatsu's door. He hadn't interacted much with him since that first day, and Kagekatsu hadn't so much as said a peep to him following the time they spent in the infirmary. If anything, they were still strangers as much as they were before. It didn't sit right with him.

It was Akashi's turn to shrug, waving a dismissive hand. "Ack, don't worry so much about Nakky, he's probably a little cranky. Sounds like I interrupted him in the middle of something important." The catboy said, turning his gaze up to the man mountain of Fukuro now. "All I wanted to do was talk for a bit, maybe see his room, and he got all nasty about it. Some people, right?"

Fukuro sighed, yeah, that sounded like something that would happen with Kagekatsu. He hated to be judgemental, but the foxboy did come off as a massive prick, even on his better days where the sarcasm was less biting. "I get you, I get you. Have had a few people like that in my life before, they don't tend to make for very good conversation." Although, it wasn't like the owlbear was the gold standard for that matter.

"Would you mind if I took a look at your room then?" Akashi asked, having a much better feeling with this one than Joseph's and Kagekatsu's. Helped that Fukuro seemed like someone that had a decent head on his shoulders.

However, it seemed like even that would be a lost cause, as Fukuro's hands immediately went up to play with his talons. "Well-l-l, you see… Umm… How can I put this…? It's… It's…" The nerves were clearly getting the better of him, although, why he was nervous in the first place was something of a mystery. His inability to get the words out to explain himself didn't help either.

Seeing the stress the owlbear was under, Akashi jumped into action. "Hey, hey, 'Kuro, no need to get so worked up about it. If you've got something sensitive in there, then I don't need to see it." Whether that was the case or not, the catboy had handed the other a viable out as he continued to talk. "It would be like if you asked me to take off my cuffs or something, I know some things are a bit too private for that!"

Fukuro, however, shook his head, not taking the out that was presented to him. "No… It's nothing like that… I'd just… I'd rather you not see it." His shoulders slumped forward; did he really have to get so defensive over his room? It wasn't that embarrassing, right?

Luckily for Fukuro, Akashi seemed to pick up some kind of second-hand embarrassment as well, realising that maybe he had prodded people too far a few times already today, all for the sake of entertaining himself. "Then let's not worry about it! There's much else to see here, missing one little place won't do too much damage!" The catboy pepped up, trying to lighten up Fukuro's morose mood.

It seemed to have worked as well, the vestiges of what looked to be some kind of smile broke out on Fukuro's face. His shoulders retreated backwards, his full height being ascended once more, all of it making the size difference between the 7'6 monster and 5'1 manlet look even more comical. "Thanks, Friend…. It's not ready for people to see yet, but when it is, I'll make sure I can show it to everyone that wants to see it."

Akashi nodded to himself, that was a good sign for the future. Even if he couldn't get what he wanted immediately, it was the first step in the right direction he had experienced in quite a while. Yet, he still had the itch to try one final time. "You got any idea of whom we can try next? And don't worry about doing the knocking, I'll be doing it, it's my idea at the end of the day. You don't need to worry about these little guys as well, I've gotten pretty good at working around them." He said, about the cuffs and the quizzical look Fukuro shot him with.

Not seeing anything better to do with his time, having spent the last few moments before leaving his room doing sweet FA, Fukuro went along with the idea. "Sure, I don't see anything wrong… Last I checked, Yoshizumi-san was still around here, not so sure about Hirono-san, though." He said, trying to remember who he had come back from lunch with. "Although I'm n-"

"Then say no more!" Akashi's eagerness was faster than Fukuro's reaction time, the owlbear unable to finish speaking or pull back the catboy as said teen knocked on Mahoro's door with all the joy of a toddler on a sugar rush. "Yoshizumi-san? Would you mind if we came in?"

The few seconds of waiting in between the knocking and seeing if there was going to be a reply were harrowing for Fukuro. Never once in his life had he wanted the ground to swallow him whole as much as he did right about now, how was he ever going to explain this to Mahoro if she was in the middle of something intimate or important? Did Akashi know what he could be getting himself into? Lord strike him down where he stands…

"So long as you promise not to interrupt me, then you may enter." The wizened, serene voice of Mahoro floated from behind the door. The faint shuffling of feet in the background was picked up by Fukuro, but not Akashi.

Compared to Akashi, who pushed open the door like he was receiving a million-dollar prize on a game show, Fukuro morosely trudged in behind, ducking underneath the door so as not to bang his head. "Wow! This is incredible!" He heard that loudmouth cat exclaim as he took a glance up at the room.

In fairness… He couldn't lie and say it wasn't just that. Having gravitated towards her the most, through no real effort other than being shoved together near enough by Subaru, Fukuro had picked up one or two hints about Mahoro. The vaguely traditional outfit should have been one of them, as the second his eyes trailed over the room, he understood it all.

Whilst the same cold floor was maintained, no one having the guts to touch it up nor the Quirk to change it entirely, everything else was different to the nth degree. In fact, notwithstanding Ikariko's, it was the dorm that had undergone the most dramatic transformation.

The whole aura of the room felt like it had become a time capsule from a bygone era, decked out in everything that could have possibly reminded them of a shrine. Honestly, if the door had been replaced by one of those sliding Shoji doors, then everything would've come into place. In the corner of the room, two paper lanterns were lit, burning bright with no sign of them slowing down any time soon as they bathed the area in an ethereal glow. A quick sniff of the air also revealed the pungent odour of burning incense.

In the centre of the room, Mahoro kneeled on a rolled-out tatami mat, her shoes placed off the corner as his eyes remained closed. What had possessed her to call out to Akashi and Fukuro was anyone's guess, given that it looked like she was meditating if anything else. The tattoo on her left wrist briefly came into view before vanishing without a trace, looking faded once it returned. The gentle rise and fall of her chest kept the mood light and serene.

However, what really brought Akashi and Fukuro's attention was what lined the walls beside them. Hanging there, five on each side, were pieces of Ukiyo-e art, which looked like they had been handcrafted by the masters of the 17th century. Each one could have easily been considered a masterpiece in its own right, with its unique style, composition, and even how the lighting seemed to accentuate the serenity of the scene even more.

"Wonder how much these cost…" Fukuro muttered to himself as he inspected one of them in particular, it looked out of place with all the rest of them. Whilst those ones looked like they had either been ripped from folklore, depicting long-forgotten creatures of legend or showing stunning sea or snowy mountain landscapes, this one gave off a different vibe.

"More than you could make in your life," Mahoro responded, voice strained and somewhat bitter. Although, it was hard to distinguish whether it was the intrusion she was initially mad at or Fukuro trying to place a value on the painting that set her off.

It made Fukuro wonder that little bit more about this art piece. It was a very simple one, done in the style that had been present on all of them so far, right down to the signature that marked the bottom of it. However, in this one, it was a solitary female figure, dressed up similar to Mahoro but with a few differences here and there that made it clear there was no correlation. Yet, Fukuro couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to the story here.

While musing over the piece, Akashi had re-joined Fukuro's side, having had his fun in looking around the rest of the room, which seemed to be wider and more spacious than others. "So, what do you think? Gotta say this place has some pretty sweet things in it, bet those could fetch a pretty penny too if you went to the right dealer."

Before Fukuro could say anything in reply, a grumble from Mahoro reached their eardrums. The girl struggled to keep her eyes shut under her own power at this point, her voice reaching a kind of hardness that was foreign to all they knew from her. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk of them like they were commodities. Would you enjoy it if I appraised those rubies in your body?"

"Garnets! They're garnets!" Akashi replied in an instant, almost like he was a robot. The disconcerting smile betrayed a wave of certain anger about him, which had previously felled even Arius under its weight.

Instead of responding, or even answering the question, Mahoro reached for the bottle of ink lying by her feet. Without so much as breaking a sweat, much to the horror of both Fukuro and Akashi, she started to down the bottle. The visible disgust was also plastered on Mahoro herself, who gagged as the slimy liquid poured down her throat. "I see, my point remains the same." She replied, placing the bottle down and patting her chest to keep the ink from returning up the other way.

"Umm… What the hell was that?" Akashi stated, blinking more owlishly than the owlbear beside him. Seeing one of his classmates drink an entire bottle of ink was not on his bingo card. Then again, neither was being used as a footstool for all his life, so it was all a bit messy at the minute.

Opening her eyes, Mahoro's aura softened slightly as she began to pull back the sleeve over her left arm. Wandering in closer, Fukuro and Akashi spied that it depicted another tattoo that she hadn't used during her induction test. Drawn in the style of the masters of old, was a twin pair of dragons, green and red in their colour scheme. Whilst it had looked faded before, now it looked as good as new. "Hm? Oh, well, I don't really have a choice, you see. The only way to keep my tattoos from fading is by drinking ink. And I absolutely~ won't allow that to happen..."

"A-ha, I see…" Akashi nodded sagely, pretending like he understood what was going on. Fake it till you make it, right? No one ever said you had to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

And now that he thought about it… Maybe he could have planned this little escapade a whole lot better.

---

"How many times do I need to tell you? Get the fuck away from me!" Time after time, day after day, second after fucking second, Ikariko felt like he was a broken record at this point with how often he was having to ward this major annoyance away from him at every waking moment. Having his arms break down on him wasn't even this painful usually, and that was saying something.

It was a few hours later in the day, and on the other end of the still locked door, Subaru was back to cause him more problems than he was worth. The conversation he had struck up the previous day with Oscar had let a few ideas settle in his mind, something that was never a good sign for the Foundation at large. A Subaru with ideas was a scary thing indeed. "And leave you all by your lonesome? Again? Maybe if you were just settling in, but you haven't seemed to have moved from that spot since you got there. Are you sure your ass hasn't grown roots at this point?"

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Ikariko let out a mechanical, dull, mocking laugh. Subaru didn't need to see through walls to know that he was probably getting one hell of a middle finger at this point. "We did this tap dance the other day, and unless you're going to give me a pony or something, then piss off. I heard your shit the first time around."

"That was very droll, you know I could do that if you wish, right? You look like you're living in its natural environment too. Worth a shot!" Subaru laughed to himself, his face not showing any indications of amusement though. The way his lips were creased into a frown and his red eyes lost any sign of humanity in them, he was already teetering on swinging moods again.

Why was that exactly? For the larger part of the young conversation, Subaru's gaze had been driven to the bottom of Ikariko's door. Unlike all of the other doors in the corridor, which were surprisingly pictures of cleanliness, the mutilated teen's one had grown out a thin patch of moss from beneath the crack in the door and was starting to invade through the other cracks as well.

Subaru scoffed internally, trying to keep his displeasure on the down-low as he waited for Ikariko to reply. Just because he had been treated like an animal for most of his life, he didn't have to end up living like one as well! Least of all whenever the clown was partly responsible for the cleanliness of the place! Here he thought Kagekatsu's bloodletting habits were going to be the biggest pain in his ass…

"And you can get shot of yourself. I told you once before, and I don't feel like repeating myself." When the reply did come, it wasn't the one that Subaru wanted to hear, yet it was the one he had resigned himself to hearing the second the first syllable dripped from those lips.

On the other side of the door, hot blood pumped through Ikariko's veins. Prideful son of a bitch clown… Gallivanting about like he had the goddamn right to dictate what Ikariko got to do with his time. As an eye went to stare a hole through the door, he could picture the sickening, sweet smirk of that sadistic madman, trying to play him as if he were a puppet on strings.

When he had signed up to this place, not that he had much of a choice in the matter, it was in the perhaps errant belief that things were going to be much better than his last abode. Of course, that wasn't a high bar to cross in the first place, and the gap between the two of them was becoming increasingly thinner.

"I hate to repeat myself as well, Iki-chan. However, needs must." Maybe the bulldozer was going to have to be the plan after all, at this rate ripping out the heart of the issue looked better than trying to pull every individual digit apart. "Not turning up to the classes is one thing, not turning up for Niijima-sama's speech and my training is a different matter entirely." The clown added, checking for any moss that might have wormed its way under his nails.

Ikariko gave a low growl, balling his golden hands into fists. Were they trying to act like they were proper teachers now? Like fuck he was going to follow them if the induction test was anything to go by! He had half a mind, from all the moaning and groaning he had heard coming outside his door that day, to run his mouth at Subaru for no doubt making them smack the shit out of each other again.

"Do you just get some kind of sick kick out of watching us fight like dogs?" Before Subaru could begin to form the diplomatic response in his head, Ikariko's low voice continued to growl with the ferocity of a fierce lion. "Scratch that, do all of your freaks like watching kids slave away for you? Like it's some kind of game?!" Out of one hellhole and right into another, could he catch a break for once in his goddamn life?!

Subaru pursed his lips, his head tilted up to the bright lights above as he placed a hand underneath his chin. There were two paths he could take with this, the diplomatic approach that he had been coached into using since he had come under Kyte's wing, or the "No, for the love of God, Subaru, don't fucking say that you moron." An approach which came more natural to him than breathing.

Needless to say, there was no need for much thought and no coin that was tossed into the air. Who gave a shit about the nagging voice in his head? Not Subaru, that was for sure! "Maybe I do, maybe I just like seeing the potential of the people in our care. Isn't that what you're used to? Fighting for your life?" The smirk on his lips could be heard for miles, he knew full well what kind of flames he was stoking.

Those flames had been lit long ago, all they needed to fully capture Ikariko was the necessary fuel. Fuel that Subaru had poured onto him in buckets, as his metal thumb went up to be gnawed to death by his sharp teeth. "Hah?! That's it then, is it? You all just tricked me into coming here where you're just going to toss me about like I'm some tool for your amusement? What the fuck was all that about fixing my heart if you're just going to shove me in the same situation as before?!"

The pink-haired adult shrugged his shoulders, moving to the back wall away from the moss, but still close enough for his voice to be heard with all the clarity it needed. "Oh, we'll fix your broken heart, you can be sure of that, Iki-chan. We just have to ask the same level of commitment from all of the students at the Foundation, and for that, you're going to have to bleed." The smile on his face didn't fit the ominous tone that Subaru slithered into Ikariko's eardrums with.

Bleed? Bleed? BLEED?! As if he hadn't done that enough in his godforsaken life already! The thought that he had, somehow, not bled enough in his life to know what the true meaning of pain and suffering was annoyed Ikariko to no end. That metal thumb of his felt like it could snap at any moment with the voracity of the assault it was weathering. "You're an even bigger moron than I thought if you think I'm going to shed a drop of blood for this place if you keep treating us like animals!"

"What is blood for if not for shedding?" Subaru asked, relaying the information as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His red eyes shadowed underneath his bangs, his smirk growing wider and wider as time ticked by. "Someone told me that when I was at the circus, never did see him after that, but it gave me food for thought. It should be with you, too."

Once more, and as was becoming increasingly common in this circus, Ikariko barely believed his ears. That was the kind of shit that was spewed at him by those insidious bastards that had conspired to rip away every part of his being, all in an attempt to mould him into the perfect gladiator. "Maybe you should go back there because it sounds like being a clown was the only thing you were ever good at." The rumbling of his voice hit lower notes the more he droned on, muffled only by the slight inclusion of the thumb in his mouth.

"Ah-ah-ah, you shouldn't be so short in your thinking." Subaru's finger wag could also be picked up in his voice, the overpowering smugness would've suffocated anyone that slinked into the path on a bad stroke of luck. "I never said that it would have to be directly shed, you really need to have your ears cleaned out."

There it was again! Ikariko's fury grew like a wildfire the more and more he heard Subaru yap on incessantly, the new smugness only added further to the level of annoyance that was pounding through his being like a serial killer striking an axe through the door. In fact, he was so annoyed that, for once, he rose to his feet and stormed over to the door. "And you need to take your brain and put it in the dump! I already told you to get lost! Don't make me come out there and do it myself!" He grimaced as he spoke, the assault on his body from Yua not fully healed yet.

"With your knees? You wouldn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of." Subaru's smugness still refused to slip away, slithering around Ikariko's eardrums like a boa constrictor. "Trust me, Iki-chan, if you can bear to do the slightest bit of work to make our time worthwhile then you will get so much out of it. Or else… Well, we might just have to reconsider your place once again."

There it was again… Ikariko gritted his teeth, threatening to go back to making them back into nubs. How could they so easily hold that threat over his head like it was nothing? Wasn't it supposed to be their goddamn job to make sure he got the help he needed? How was "helping" him supposed to be conducive to saying they're going to chuck him out? Add on top, the sheer amount of violence, and borderline glorification of it, that made him sick to his stomach and there was a perfect recipe for hatred right there.

It was getting so hard to keep his anger in check, his thoughts turning to tear every last one of those locks off and then the door itself so he could plant his fist right through the clown's head. To see that smirking, prideful bastard put in his place would do wonders to cool him off, knocking cretins like that off their perch always did bring him the most satisfaction.

However, there wasn't a chance for Ikariko to explode out with any answer. Instead, he was interrupted by the sight of a playing card that had wormed its way into the cracks in the door's hinges. Much to his shock and amazement, said card then went on to fully cut through just about anything he saw.

As each of the locks fell to the ground, ruining the work the brunette had put into them, he stood with his jaw gaping open. Soon after the last one had hit the ground, the sound muffled by the pile of moss that seemed bigger the deeper into the room it got, Subaru appeared in the doorway with the card in between his teeth and the door swung wide open to the side.

"Ha, ha, ha, clever magic trick, very impressive. Hoped that really entertains your barbaric brat." Ikariko couldn't forget that the apple never fell too far from the tree, Yua was just as guilty of the pain that had befallen him as Subaru was. Not like he could stay fully mad at her, knowing she was just a pawn of this awful man, but if you slept with dogs, nine times out of ten you would end up with fleas.

The clown smirked in reply, shoving the card deeper into his mouth as took long strides to face down Ikariko for the first time since the induction. The card went deeper and deeper, Subaru's hand following along with it until it looked like he was going to choke on it. Right until he hoped his mouth to show nothing was actually there, Ikariko had half a mind to watch him choke then and there. "Why, thank you! Yua used to love it as a young tyke. Personally, it's one of my favourites too! Nishishishsihi!" He finished with a flourishing bow, acting like he was performing to a large crowd.

Once more, though, before Ikariko could make some kind of snide remark or move to chuck the clown out of his room, he found himself at the sadistic whims of the murderous angel in front of him. This time around, instead of a card, it was a pristine, somewhat old-fashioned phone that was being held out in front of him and beckoned before him, complete with a pink case for good measure. "Go on, take it." Subaru encouraged, nearly forcing it onto Ikariko's person.

With no other choice coming his way, Ikariko snatched at the phone and began to mutter under his breath. "Break into someone's room to give them a phone… Fucking hell…" His eyes shifted from the phone back to all the locks now on the ground, did Subaru not realise how long that had taken? Okay, it might have only taken somewhere in the region of two or so hours to get the additional ones installed, but it was the principle that mattered! A man's privacy was his privacy, and for various reasons, the golden-armed teen loved his privacy above all else.

"This isn't just any ordinary phone!" Subaru exclaimed, adding to the theatrics with gasping lips and a well-placed hand over them. One would've thought Ikariko had insulted the Queen with how the clown acted, well, he wasn't too far away from the truth all things considered. "That phone belonged to yours truly about fifteen years ago. Don't ask me why I kept it so long, maybe I just liked the colour. I think there's something on there you might like to hear."

Ikariko grumbled, getting the unwritten memo that had been sent out to him. The way Subaru was standing, his body turned to the door and feet positioned to cut off escape roots, he was going to be able to block the door regardless of what was done. He had trapped the teen in his own sanctuary without so much as making it obvious, a trick that felt like an apex predator coiling around its prey, waiting for them to make a wrong move.

Another grumbled was loosed as he unlocked the phone, assisted by the fact Subaru obviously didn't value whatever was on it without some kind of pin lock being present. The whole phone, the more he scanned the different screens, scratching the protector with his metal fingers, seemed to be mostly barren. No apps were present, even the contacts list had been long deleted, and Ikariko was struggling to find the point of what this was. "Oi! What's the big idea with this th-!"

He stopped speaking as he glared up to spy Subaru hunched over by the door, carefully picking up all the locks from the mossy floor, making sure not to touch said moss as if he saw it as radioactive. "Keep looking! I'm sure you'll find it! Don't mind me, I'm just doing a bit of cleaning! You really live in such a massive dump!" The nagging tone, combined with the hands-on-hips, made Ikariko roll his eyes. It was just like being with a mother… If said mother also had a vested interest in pushing you to bullshit extremes for the sake of their amusement.

Ikariko scoffed at the idea, shaking his head as he begrudgingly scrolled once more through the phone screen, squinting his eyes to try and find where anything could be on this phone. The longer that passed, the more it looked to be a lost cause, and the more it continued to piss him off to no end.

In fact, his patience wore so thin that he was calculating the angles in his head to throw his phone at the wall and cause the most damage to it possible. His arm had reared back, eyes narrowed and locked on the area he had selected. However, it was stopped in the act by the realisation that something had just opened on the phone as he brought it up to his eye line.

Curious as to what it may be, Ikariko paused, the idea of destroying this infernal thing cast off to the side for the time being. He brought the phone back down to a normal height and held it in landscape as the video, or what he assumed to be a video, started to load on it. A few seconds later, the video sputtered into life and revealed a smoky back room, dominated by the presence of a man in all black with a red mask covering his face to hide his identity.

Ikariko would be lying to himself if he didn't feel the slightest twinge of the hair on the back of his neck, or if he didn't notice parts of his torso beginning to break out into goosebumps. Although he couldn't see it happening, the addition of Subaru's red eyes staring at him from the corner of the room added to that ominous feeling.

"Greetings, my childreennn." Oh, wonderful. Not only did the guy look like a total creep in that get up, but he also sounded like someone had dragged his vocal cords out of his body and turned them into shashlik, before jamming them back inside and hoping it would all stick together with one coat of hot glue. "I know you have been waiting such a long time, and that my words are the very thing you wait on for solace in this cold, cold world."

Bullshit. That's what this was. Stupid, fucking bullshit that ended up wasting more of his time on pointless crap, rather than focusing on something he would much rather be doing! Like being alone, for instance. It was getting close to the red line in the sand, if not already over it, where Ikariko wanted to rip Subaru's head off and poke out his eyes like some god of war.

"Andddddd because this world is so coldddddd, there is nothing we can do but seek warmth through one another. Community… Connections… Humanity is on the precipice of falling off the edge into this dark reality the more and more we shelter these truths from the world. Without them, we'd simply be mindless, gladiatorial beasts fighting in an endless struggle to spill the blood of our fellow man, what a travesty that would be. Wouldn't it? Would you kindly imagine it for me?"

There was something… Something so disconcerting about the voice. Whether it was the smoky room, the cultish attire, or the eerie voice that sounded all too familiar, Ikariko was starting to regret that he might have angered Subaru to the point. Every word, no matter how nice, made his skin crawl.

Never mind the last part that made his mouth run dry… He hated to be arrogant, or even prideful about it, but there was something about it that he couldn't shake out of his head. Like those words were sliming into his head, dragging scraggly, bony fingers through his mind, and moulding it like a piece of clay. Was this what hypnosis felt like? Because he was feeling woozy enough to believe it.

"Nishishisi, you're quite enraptured by that, aren't you?" Subaru interjected, having shifted himself beside Ikariko without the teen noticing. The pink-haired adult tapped on the side of his head, smirking up a storm. "Sometimes my brilliance knows no bounds, what can I say? I ran into that guy about two years or so before I recorded that video for him. Kept it that whole time, knew someone would come along that needed to hear it."

It also appeared that Subaru had memorised the pauses with pinpoint accuracy because right, as he had finished speaking the man in the video, spoke again. "Frightful, isn't it? Sadly, it is the future being created for us, without us having any say in the matter. Tales told by idiotic, hideous people stuck in the past and refusing to meet the march of history. That's what dictates our future. The same can be said for the slothful, slovenly, lazy population that allows this charade to continue!"

This had been made 15 years ago? Yeah, right. Paranoia was only crazy if they weren't out to get you from the start, and how this guy was speaking, accelerated the icky feeling within Ikariko's very soul. There was little chance Subaru had been sitting on this for this long… Was there? Asking the truth from the clown was a hard task… The hard glare that Ikariko could feel skulking up his back gave him an answer, whether it was the one he wanted was neither here nor there.

"…Forgive me for losing myself, my children…. It is time for us to change the world. People don't know what they want until you give them exactly what they need, and what the whole world needs is a wake-up call to the hideous clay it has been moulded in. And if they won't change themselves, then it is simply the job of us, the forgotten, the weak, the weary, that are required to take this chance into our hands."

From the corner of his eye, Ikariko spied what looked to be a flash of white hair poking out from between the mask and cloak. Hair that had been knocked out of place as the man tried to smooth himself back down, having worked himself up far too much in his passionate diatribe. If he were to believe Subaru, it could have been anyone behind that mask that the clown might have known fifteen years ago. However, a part of him started to doubt that it was really that long ago, and there was only one person he knew in this place with white hair…

Still, he wouldn't jump to conclusions. As much as the people that ran this shitshow made him want to chew his thumb off, and then jam it into their fucking eyes as punishment for lying to him, the benefit of the doubt had to be afforded. No matter how much it pained him to do that, considering the previous times he had done the same thing.

"Peace… For those that want it… Love… For those that cherish it… Acceptance… For those that deserve it… Take my hand, my children, you poor unfortunate souls, and let me guide you into the world you know you deserve."

Watching carefully as the bar on the bottom of the screen neared the end, he saw the man take a deep breath and throw up a peace sign. The voice had grown more distorted the closer the video got to the conclusion, sounding like a cacophony of distraught, crying souls. In fact, it was borderline close to making Ikariko's ears bleed, as he raced one of his gargantuan arms up to his left one and grimaced through the shrill droning that assaulted them.

The final seconds ticked by, Ikariko couldn't wait for this schlocky mess to be over with. It looked like some idiot kid's horror project, positively dripping with edge so sharp you could cut yourself on it. One final scene played out before everything faded to black, a sickly hand working to grab the mask and reveal the distorted mouth that lay underneath.

"Now, would you kindly join me in The Dyad? Let's go change the world."

Something about that… Something about that line, just hearing it made Ikariko's insides churn like nothing before. As he saw Subaru's hand reach out behind him and pluck the phone out of his grip, his eyes blurred like he needed thick glasses to see properly again. The disorientation was immense to say the least, figuring out up and down when he was looking through blurry pea soup proved to be an impossible task.

"Well, wasn't that nice?" Subaru spoke, now appearing in front of him and holding up two fingers. The jeering joy in his voice couldn't be missed, and neither could the wide, wild smile he was wearing with the utmost pride. "I think he made a few good points there, don't you?" Ikariko was unable to see the pink-haired male cringe directly, but the strain in his voice was evident.

The golden-armed teen was still groggy, he blinked in an attempt to clear the gunk out of his eyes before responding to Subaru with trademark annoyance. "Nice?! You barge into my room and make me watch something that fucks up my vision and is also the poorest attempt at shock motivation I've ever seen! Piss off outta here!" He tried to jump to his feet, however, his eyes still unable to see clearly didn't spot the patch of moss that had grown right in front of him. The change in position and texture, naturally, led to a loss of balance with Ikariko more than preparing to chew Subaru out after he picked himself up from his inevitable collision with the ground.

However, that never quite came to be. Within a flash of black and silver, an arm wrapped itself around Ikariko's chest and hoisted him out of danger all in one fluid movement. The reaction time was so great that Ikariko didn't realise he was back on level ground before Subaru tapped on his chest, his lips now close to the teen's ear. "Woah, careful there, Iki-chan. We wouldn't want you having to go to Sati, would we? He's very busy today, so do make sure to stay out of trouble." He whispered, a mocking undertone present throughout as one would come to expect from him.

"I would've never gotten into this situation if you just pissed off in the first place! God! Why do you have to be so annoying?!" Ikariko raged, his voice still low and almost calm in a way. He pushed off Subaru, putting as much venom into it as he did force. On top of that, he made sure to wipe at his ear, clearing it of any disgusting remnant of Subaru's words.

Holding his hands up, Subaru backed up, slipping the phone underneath his sleeve, and replacing it with a playing card. The Eight of Diamonds to be exact. "Okay, okay, I can see that I may have overstayed my welcome here. Just remember what I said, alright? I don't know how often I have to mention this, but I would hate to see you waste your time here." With the flick of his wrist, the card flew over and landed on Ikariko's lap. "Ciao for now! I'll make sure to get the door fixed sooner rather than later!" He added, leaving before Ikariko could get another word in edgewise.

Seeing the chance to further rip the head off Subaru verbally, Ikariko slumped back to the bed and put his hands over his eyes. Just what the actual hell had happened? One moment he was minding his own business like any other day, not so much enjoying the solitude but revelling in the relaxation it had brought him. Then, without warning, Subaru had come in and wrecked his peace in a matter of seconds, only adding to the pain with the video he forced the teen to watch.

What even was that… that… hideously shitty video? What was it supposed to achieve other than showing Subaru up as more of a creep since he had it supposedly stored away for fifteen years? God, more shit on top of more shit. Was he ever going to be free of this endless cycle?

His eyes darted over to where the discarded locks were and groaned, not only had his relaxation been ruined but so too had been his defences from interruption. He gritted his teeth as he thought about the work he had put into getting them on there in the first place, and the amount of work it would take to fix it, alongside the idea that it might not be worth it at the end of the day.

If the whole goal of his charade was to entice him out to the rest of the group, Ikariko would take great pleasure in spitting back at Subaru's face and saying that all he did was strengthen his resolve to not join the circus. They could threaten him with expulsion as much as he wanted until he saw the worth in it, there was no way he was stepping out of the room for anything other than food.

With a grunt and sigh, he settled himself back into bed. The sooner he could get all this crap out of his mind the better.

On the other side of the equation, Subaru sauntered down the corridors back to where he needed to be for the rest of the day. Trying to pull the head off the snake of Ikariko was but one thing he had on his to-do list, and he would much prefer not to dwell too much on the lack of success he had with that task. He knew he'd get him eventually… But no one said that the chase was going to be an enjoyable one, especially if the video failed.

"Daddy! You never said it was going to be that long!" The voice of Yua emerging from out of nowhere knocked Subaru's attention from the floor to the path ahead of him. The young girl, fully kitted out back in her hazmat suit, had been awake only for a few days since recovering from the induction fight. Without much of a warning, she threw herself at Subaru and locked her arms around his chest.

"Forgive me, Yua dearest, I just happened to get caught up talking to Iki-chan for longer than I thought," Subaru said, patting the younger's head whilst he kept his gritted teeth to a minimum. The urge to roll his eyes was immense, but he had greater control of his emotions than he did twenty years ago, he would not falter to this crap again. "Something tells me that he's still not very happy about what happened between you two." He added, bending down to Yua's eye level with a knowing smirk.

"Did he not like it? He seemed happy enough when we were playing…" Yua mumbled, twiddling her thumbs together and looking up to her 'Dad' with a curious, innocent gleam in her eyes. She hadn't meant to hurt him all that much; she was just following what she had been taught! Sure, her teaching methods might have been a little bit extreme and esoteric, but it wasn't that bad though!

Subaru shook his head, tutting as he brought himself back up to full height and plucked Yua from his body. "I think that's the problem, Yua dear. Differing viewpoints based on different backgrounds, Iki-chan didn't have the fortune of being trained by the best there was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be, did he?"

"Nope!" Yua giggled, popping the 'P' for extra effect. She loved whenever her 'dad' ended up going into conversations about this! They always brought up such happy memories of her first training session with Subaru, and even the passing conversations she had had with Kyte when he wasn't too busy with it! She had learnt so much from the others as well!

"Then maybe, just maybe, you need to be a bit careful on his lesser self," Subaru smirked, gladly throwing Ikariko under the bus and reversing over him several times for good measure. "He can't keep to your standard and your viewpoint, so tone it down a little with him, okay? I can't have another crybaby in my employ."

Yua nodded her head, having to prevent herself from bouncing up and down. Just talking to Subaru was enough to get her giddy, considering how little she had seen of him recently, but to hear him praise her? It was the best feeling in the world for her! She wanted to hear it on repeat forever! "Okay! I understand! I'll make sure to keep that in mind!"

"Good girl," Subaru muttered, patting her on the head once more before turning on his heel. "Now, why don't you go and find where the others are and bond with them for a bit, hmm? I need to get some important business done, and then I'll be right back with you, okay?"

The sound of deflation behind him made the hairs on Subaru's skin stand up, the fucking shrillness of it activating his fight or flight reaction. The things this girl did to him… "No problem, Daddy! I'll make sure that they know everything about the Fujinaga way before you know it!" Lucky for him, then, Yua skipped away towards the meeting area as soon as she had finished.

Checking over his shoulder this time, both ways to make extra sure, Subaru dragged his hands down his face and sighed. He felt like an overworked dentist with how many teeth he had pulled, was this what being Shion would entail? If so, he had to give an apology to the therapist, she was clearly made of sterner stuff if she could constantly deal with all these drizzling shitbuckets.

Peace is what the coordinator needed right about now, alas he was never going to get it. Such was the nature of his work, which made him regret every extra second he stayed awake past his bedtime. Pressing his hands to his temples, he rubbed them with care, messaging all the pointless crap and pain out of the past hour out of his mind.

Once that was said and done, he moved his attention down to his overcoat. With a swift turn of his wrist, he plucked the ring he had taken from Oscar the previous day from the chain that he had it hanging on. His eyes fixated on the only good thing anyone related to Sateriasis had done in his life. Lord only knows how much Subaru hated dealing with that side of the Foundation's main teacher, and that was back when Subaru actually enjoyed travelling the world.

Was he being cruel? Perhaps.

Did he care? Not really.

Kyte-sama's Foundation was exactly how he had pitched it to Ikariko, no matter how much the Vampire Lord like to dress it up. To get anywhere in this place, you needed to bleed, and you needed to bleed the colours of this place until you were blue in the face. They didn't get anywhere based on half-measures.

He had already gotten an earful from Sateriasis about letting a one Migoro Yuusui into the Foundation, hearing endless moaning about how it "wrecked the natural system," and how it would be "the thin end of the wedge," which in normal person speak translated into the nurse just being lazy, in Subaru's mind.

But he had promised him that he was going to make that kid see red come hell or high water, to really give Sateriasis something to complain about. The ring in his hand was but the first step on the staircase of that reality, he'd see what colour he bled underneath all that cautious exterior.

After all, the teen would have no choice in the matter. In Subaru's world, the situation and question were simple. Why ask someone to make a decision when you can smash their head in with a sledgehammer and make the choice for them? It got rid of all the pointless bickering that way, gifting many long hours of peace and quiet.

A smirk came across his lips as he turned on his heel and set off once more, right in the direction of the security room. He had to cast the bait out to the fish in the first place, only then could he use the bottle that had worked its way into his hand to reel it in…

---

His whole body felt heavy, sluggish by every definition of the word. Just moving his eyelids proved to be an impossible task, the action of doing so crushed down by eyelashes that weighed more than two packed-to-the-brim lorries. Nevermind the searing pain that had wormed through his arms, leaving them pincered and digging in deep like a scorpion that had immobilised its prey, ready for the final fatal strike.

When Yuusui's eyes finally broke open, panic started to overtake that pain and consumed his body. His breath quickened to a pace not touched since the first fateful days since his stranger had departed from him. Frantically, his eyes darting about the place, half to figure out where the hell he was and a half to jog any sort of memory of how he got here in the first place.

The teen's mind was blank, like a whole part of his memory had been redacted like the words on an incriminating tape. Pushing himself up off the ground, his feet wobbled, legs feeling like jelly as he tried to regain some sort of stable footing. A hand went up to the side of his head, messaging the temple as he began to blink away the grogginess as best he could.

Yuusui could scarcely recognise his surroundings as being a part of the Foundation, it was relatively easy to tell actually. There was no sense of a white void consuming all, there were no random splashes of colour that looked like a schizophrenic had painted it in their sleep, and there were no pointlessly high ceilings or rooms that stretched on for miles only to end in a dead-end because someone got a sick kick out of it.

In fact, this place seemed… normal… Almost like a time capsule, now that Yuusui thought about it some more. The boring teal walls, the subdued colour scheme of white and grey of the tiles beneath his feet, the chest high walls that looked like they had been ripped from a cubical, all of it felt so, so, normal.

That's what made it so, so wrong for Yuusui, though, the more he took in what was around him. A lump started to form in his throat, refusing to go down no matter how many times he tried to clear the said throat or swallow his anxiety. Carding hands through his hair, Yuusui tried to ignore the pending thoughts trying to break down the wall in his head. They were the last thing he needed to have confuse him at the minute.

What was most important was assuaging why he was here in the first place. The idea of kidnapping had instantly flung into the forefront of his head, how else could he have managed to travel from the Foundation to this place without knowing it? If that was indeed the case, then it would make sense that someone had drugged him, but who would be able to sneak into the Foundation to do it? And who would even have the motivation to do such a thing?

Yuusui shook his head, hands retreating down to his side and starting to ball themselves into silent, trembling fists. No, this wasn't a kidnapping. Experience had taught him far too many things, concepts he had no business knowing, about what went down in one of them. From the struggle of drugging them, to the hideous sound of their voices crying out, to the culprit always being nearby to exposit their demands or make one final grandiose speech before cutting their victim's life short.

This event had none of those. Whilst there may have been an area around him, far too much like an office of sorts at that, there was no sign that anyone else was even present. It was like he had teleported into another reality, he was half expecting the langoliers to come barrelling in any second now at this rate.

A bitter chuckle rose to his lips, leaking out before he could stop it. By eliminating that possibility there remained only one kind of scenario he could picture as being remotely realistic, and it caused that lump in his throat to get that much bigger.

Yuusui knew very well why he was here now, in fact, he knew who had likely put him here in the first place. Subaru had always been holding that test over the top of his head, parading the threat of it like it was his ace in the hole, his ultimate symbol of control over the glassy-eyed teen. Now, it looked like he had finally acted on his promised threat.

Which only made Yuusui think deeper as he set off around this derelict office space. With the rhythmic clack of his shoes on the tilled ground, heels clicking together in rigid, practised movements, he cast his mind back to the conversation he had with the psychotic clown the other day.

"You'll earn your place, whether you do it covered in blood or not will be up to you."

Those ominous words had been rattling about in his head for a good while now, even as he started to walk forward on autopilot. Had it been anyone else in his life the previous two years, he'd have thought it was more of an empty threat than anything. Something they could jab in Yuusui's general direction to knock him down a peg, 'to shove the mutt to the floor' as had been so eloquently put once upon a time.

Subaru's words, though, were always followed through. That was maybe the scariest thing about the pink-haired male. Not least when he had seen the state of the others following their own tests, and he had quiet the verbal corroboration from Kagekatsu the other day.

Yuusui shuddered at the thought of his face becoming a crimson mask, caked to his skin for the next days to come. Goosebumps began to pop up on his skin, the cold chill that came from opening the door in front of him only adding further to the icy temperature the whole place had seemed to drop down to.

Part of his brain screamed at him to turn around, recognising the abject danger he was putting himself in the longer he walked down these increasingly narrow corridors. However, even the idea of being like the final girl in a horror film didn't stop him from soldiering on, ignoring the voice of reason yelling in his head.

If the Foundation wanted to test him, then the Foundation tested him. It was only right and natural. If anything, Yuusui would've been more concerned about how the others looked at him if he hadn't done a test in the first place, so in a way it was kinda like an insurance policy, right?

Ugh, Yuusui hated talking himself into situations like this as he rubbed at his glassy eyes. His back soon found itself pressed up against a wall, enough time to rest his weary legs. It seemed like the full effect of whatever Subaru had drugged him with hadn't worn off just yet, the limbs still felt like they could drop off his body at any given second.

In a situation like this, even if it was in an unpleasant position, he was going to take every chance to rest that came his way. He had no foreknowledge of what was going to happen next, whether he was going to be running for his life, or if he was going to need to be fighting for it. Anything from a literal ball of death running him over Indiana Jones style, to the easiest fight of his life against a toddler, could've come his way.

He gave a dry chuckle to himself at that last part, it would be rather funny if, after all the panic he had gone through upon waking up, he had been rolled a total softball. However, it would also be a double-edged sword… It would mean that Subaru had once again handed something to him he expected to pass… Once more handing him an advantage over the others…

Was Subaru deliberately trying to do that? It wasn't totally out of the question when it came to the clown, but the motivations were messy as all hell, even if that did turn out to be the case. Why would Yuusui be treated differently from the rest? What was special about him to earn this treatment when he knew that there was nothing unique to that effect in his whole body.

Pushing himself to walk around, knowing that staying stationary would be inviting unwanted pressure on him, Yuusui took another look at where he found himself. No matter where he looked, it was an ordinary office block, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something frightfully off about it.

The green doors stood there; their presence almost ominous despite how unthreatening they were. The beige walls, which merged into a kind of cream colour the longer you trailed your hand across the rough bumps and ridges, were the much the same. Neither of them were major threats to Yuusui's life, yet he found himself almost scared to touch them. Each time he approached one of the doors, a cautious hand always shakily reached out, ready to snap back should something burst out of its confines.

However, every time without fail, opening the door would reveal another block of offices, similar to the one he woke up in. Every time, it made Yuusui feel so idiotic for being apprehensive of a fucking door. He shook his head as he moved down the stairs, the bannister was made of fine wood and professionally hand carved with many intricate designs such as lions, dragons, and heroes of the past.

Once more, the dull thud of his feet on the floor worked its way into his brain. The pending threat of something, anything jumping out on him still existed, and the longer time passed on without anything to off of, it made the teen's chest clench that little bit more. Yuusui's eyes were working overtime at this rate, trying to find something to latch onto that would give him a clue as to where he was supposed to go.

Up until now, his brain had been on autopilot, gliding down the halls and through the office spaces as if he had done it a million times before. A feeling that once again brought up the aching familiarity with every inch of this place, yet one he failed to fully bring back on account of his drug-addled mind being filled with cobwebs.

The stairs dragged on forever. It made him smirk, in a way, it reminded him of those long corridors he kept getting lost in at the Foundation. More so, he was happy that there was some kind of familiarity he could attach himself to without feeling like the Devil was over his shoulder. To his knees, though, each step down felt like a further descent into hell. By the time he reached the bottom stretch, they were gagging for air, having been suffocated enough for a fully grown man to drop down dead.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, though, Yuusui began to notice the marked change that the surrounding area had undergone. No longer was it dull, lifeless, begat by the existence of a dull wall and equally dull, corporate steps. Instead, the ground underneath his feet felt different. It had gone from those clean, slick tiles into nothing short of rough concrete and vulcanised rubber, making every successive step uncomfortably hard. The sound of his footsteps echoed down the hallway in front of him.

The ground wasn't the only thing that had changed as well. The walls had shifted, turning into smooth, wallpapered yellow beasts that seemed to move in weird directions. Not quite like the shifting walls of the Foundation, but more like they had been built with the purposeful goal of being confusing. Another pang of familiarity erupted in his chest as he ran his hand down one of them, his callouses brushing up against the soft covering, his eyes fluttering as he thought back to the last time any sort of comfort like that had been afforded to him.

Last but not least, the doors had changed as well. Or, rather, the lack of visible doors. Whilst he had been on the higher office level, the green doors had sprayed themselves out like a puddle of slime. Taking up every corner, standing there like the guardians of some terrible secret no matter where he looked.

However, down here, in what looked to be some kind of underground area, they were nowhere in sight. It was… Confusing, to say the least. The whole area was confusing, yet painfully nostalgic at the same time. Just like the above area, Yuusui felt like he had been here so many times before, enough for him to recite the map from memory.

Once more on autopilot, Yuusui turned away from the wall and continued down the hallway in front of him. There was no other way, simply put, to figure out the nature of this test if he didn't continue to move forward. With nothing suggesting he should stop at any point, the natural conclusion was to march on without looking back, only looking ahead of any sign of life.

That was when his dull, glassy eyes met with the flickering lightbulb a few yards ahead of him. Normally, it would be one of those annoying things he would have to ignore, the sight being irritating whenever it was one out of a string of working bulbs. However, with it being the only source of light, he was drawn to it like a bull to the colour red.

Wordless, he took careful steps to where it seemed to be pointing. The blub hanged just in front of another door. However, unlike all the doors that had turned up previously, this one was far different. The green had been substituted with a putrid brown colour, one that reminded Yuusui of actual faeces, whilst the overall state of the door was littered with scratches, chipped wood, and all manner of tacky markings.

Had this been a normal situation, this would've been an easy choice to steer as far away from it as possible, you couldn't get more physical obvious that something dangerous lurked in the depts behind this door. On the other hand, this was a far from normal situation, which equally meant that it was just as likely that this was the only way forward. The hideous chills that continued their attempt to conquer Yuusui's body returned, making him shiver once more as he reached out to pull the tarnished door handle.

Pushing the door, hearing it scrape across the ground and the screaming of hinges that hadn't been oiled in close to a decade by the sounds of things, Yuusui edged a foot into the room. His breathing was steady, it had to be. Part of him knew that should he show any metric of panic like he had at the beginning, then he was going to be overwhelmed before he knew it. He needed to maintain the façade of calm, even if he felt like hysteria was about to slap him down to the floor.

Although, that was going to prove to be a challenge that would get progressively harder as he took sight of what lay bare in front of him. Yuusui didn't know what to expect when he walked through, the faintest inkling of a possible corpse had come to mind briefly when all the exterior damage was considered. However, seeing a massive crime board in front of him was about the last thing that had been a scenario in his head.

Yuusui pressed on with more caution than before, his edging footsteps now in strides no longer than a ballerina on her tiptoes. Every aspect of the board had to be quickly subsumed, it would be stupid to assume it was here for aesthetic purposes. Nevertheless, the sight of what exactly was on the board made the brunette's eyes widen astronomically, his eyebrows shooting up to the top of his forehead.

"Wh… It… It can't…" For the first time since arriving here, Yuusui audibly spoke, although finding the right words to say was proving to be more difficult than first thought. His hands quickly moved over to his chest, briefly darting over the top of his long scar before they settled over his pounding heart. That increasing panic was coming back again, this time with a vengeance as hysteria threatened to pull no punches in its inexorable march forward.

On the crime board before him, there were several newspaper clippings. Newspaper clippings that had been crinkled and corrupted into the same lurid yellow the walls from earlier were. The small typeface made Yuusui squint to read the detail. The headlines, on the other hand, weren't something he needed to squint at. Rather, he'd have preferred not to have looked at them at all.

"STRING OF MYSTERIOUS KIDNAPPINGS ROCK LOCAL AREA!"

"SUSPECT STILL AT LARGE!"

"VILLAIN KNOWN AS DOLLMAKER CAPTURED AT LAST, CLOSE TO 20 DEAD LIKELY! MOTIVE STILL UNKNOWN!"

Pictures detailed images that he had thought were long left in the past. Images that should have been left in the past; cast down into the fiery pits of hell where they belonged. Just looking at the grainy pictures, much of the detail redacted in the first place to allow them to be published, made Yuusui's body tremble in rage.

What irony that the Good Doctor had been immortalised for his acts of evil.

The whole board was filled with it, and Yuusui hated it with all the passion in the world. Hated every last inch of this fuckin abomination in front of him, of the abomination of mutilated memory that was presented before him. Without another thought crossing through his mind, the brunette raced up to the board and began to slash at everything he could see.

It wasn't so much as him being refined as he usually was or even a cautious removal of all the hideous mementos of the past. No, this was a frantic, hysteric slashing of the loose threads that had worked their way into the tangled web that had ensnared him since he was born.

It all… He wanted to destroy it all. He needed to destroy it all! To rip up everything about it as much out of sheer spite as it was out of hidden desperation. He was already reminded of the terrible truth every time he looked in the mirror, he was already reminded of it every time he saw his body after taking a shower, and he was already reminded of it whenever he opened his eyes every morning to find his new home at the Foundation.

The tearing of the paper was music to his ears, Yuusui allowing himself to a show a bout of hysteric joy for the briefest moment as a kind of triumphant smirk passed across his lips. The tattered remains of what was left behind littered the floor, the previously bold headlines eradicated into tiny pieces that could never be glued back together again.

However, in the mania facing a section of his past had brought upon him, he had missed a rather crucial visual clue. Whilst Yuusui took deep breath after deep breath, working himself down from his hysteric peak, the faint sound of scratching danced into the room, the sign of fingernail scratches on the inside of the door having gone unnoticed by the teen.

The faint tapping of feet against the crowd was lost on Yuusui too, the brunette was far too caught in the glorious relief that washed over him, smiling at the scene of destruction he had caused in this familiar hellhole. For once… For once he could at least be happier with himself, that he had acted for the sake of what he thought was right… As opposed to what had been spoon-fed to him.

Patting himself on the back, however, proved to be his downfall. Only now did the sound of the scratching, the faint footsteps, and now joined by the sound of dry, hoarse breathing reach his ears. Upon hearing the trio of terrible noises, Yuusui stiffed as straight as an iron rod. The same anxiety that had been so prominent throughout recovered its Kingdom from the hysteria, the teen's hands clenching and unclenching on a loop.

"Did you… Truly think… You were… Alone…?" Yuusui's ears pricked up at that voice, that oh so familiar voice… He had only heard it once, but when you were from such an exotic, non-Japanese place, it was very easy to pick out the Australian accent that undercut everything.

But… But why was it Morales-sensei? That was the part Yuusui didn't understand in the slightest, it was easier to imagine someone like Subaru in this role, skulking around the corners of these backrooms. In fact, the clown seemed to be purpose built to be in that kind of situation, hunting down and picking off victims like a slasher horror film villain.

"…I'm not… Here to… Wait about…" Came another rasp of Oscar's voice, the Foundation's teacher now unmistakeably pinpointed by Yuusui as the one with him. Where had he come from? Was he in this room the whole time? Neither of those two questions were really important at the minute, but Yuusui damn well would've liked them answered come hell or high water. Had he been stalking the teen since he woke up?

Yuusui's mind powered into overdrive as he swiftly left the room in question, making his best Kagekatsu impression as he departed with his metaphorical tail between his legs. On top of that, he also tried his darndest to blend into the shadows as much as possible. Hiding around a corner, glassy eyes spied the sign of his skin already beginning to ripple without his command… Almost like a self de-.

"I'm waiting… Migoro-kunnnnnnnn… I hate… To wait… More than… Anything else…" The brunette's train of thought was cut off dead in its tracks by Oscar's low drone, the scratching sound now replaced by the squealing of what sounded like metal ripping through more metal.

Staying still was dangerous, Yuusui knew that truth like it was gospel. In any situation, inaction was bound to land you in hot water. When it came to the Foundation and the way he had been told it worked, inaction was seen as something of a blight. When it came to being chased down and stalked by one of your teachers, pretences of it being a good idea were flung right out of the window.

"In case… You didn't… Hear me… I hate… To Wait… So, I… Won't…" The pace of the footsteps picked up not even a split second later, going from a slow shamble to the thunderous beat of a fucking monster trying to hunt down its prey. It had gone from slasher to savage in the space of only a few half moments.

As soon as he heard the powerful beats of the beast coming to get him, Yuusui also broke out into a sprint. Gone were the thoughts about what he had seen earlier, what he was here for in the first place, and even the thoughts of the test. Right now, the only thought was the desperate one that survival had to be secured no matter what kind of attack he would have to execute.

However, he soon met the one obstacle that would kneecap him if he wasn't careful to the nth degree. Mainly, this whole place looked the same! Everywhere he looked, it was an endless mage of those walls that jutted out without concern for liminal space. He could turn one corner with certainty, but before he knew it, he'd be right back in a circle by the next time he blinked.

There was no doubt in his mind, bitter as it was, that Oscar knew his way around this place like a glove. There was no doubt in his mind, resentful as it was, that the teacher had been handed the layout by Subaru or someone close to him beforehand, letting him more effectively butcher his way to Yuusui.

Yuusui didn't have enough time to dwell on these feelings, though. Right now, he was already formulating his plan. Although he was still yet to see Oscar the years he had spent before the Foundation had helpfully kicked in for him, training that would drive lesser men to their wit's end but had only hardened the pressured diamond that Yuusui was.

Within the next second, the rippling feeling that had been built up on his skin was brought under control. Yuusui's glassy eyes, for once, had some semblance of resolve in them. No longer were they merely extra features that caused people to shiver when looked at them, now they were windows to the soul proper. A soul that had decided that if this was his test, he was going to ace it with flying fucking colours.

At that moment… Yuusui Migoro… Shattered.

On the other end of the equation, the teacher that had been gifted with the chance to prove his worth to Subaru continued to pound down the hallways. Oscar had always been something of a Swiss army knife for Subaru, whether the other male liked that reality or not wasn't his to decide. Whether he liked being treated as a slave more than a fellow member of staff also wasn't his place to make the call, in the Foundation. Action was the much more pertinent metric.

Action was what Subaru wanted whenever he called Oscar to his office the previous day, and the Australian knew full well that when that happened shit was going to hit the fan in a multitude of different ways. "Come on… Migoro-kunnnnnn… Come on… Come to… Your teacher…!" His hoarse, raspy, scratchy, ghastly tone was not his original one, for good reason.

Subaru didn't need the other Oscar. He didn't need the straight-laced teacher, nor that shouty man that liked to carry himself as hot shit but was nothing more than a flaming bag of it on Halloween Night.

No, the psycho clown needed someone that could get the job done and do it with ruthless efficiency. Compared to how he was dressed before in the Foundation proper, he was even more dressed down than he had been before. Gone was the turtleneck, revealing to the world proper the mountain of muscle that had been kept trapped underneath it, alongside the veritable mess of burn scars that littered his skin.

"Your eyes… They beg… For me… To ease… Their pain." With Subaru removing the one ring that had kept him chained down, HE could finally be released from the prison that had kept him asunder for far, far too long. How wonderful it was to feel the air strike his face, to feel the adrenaline in his soul at the thrill of the chase.

Did it feel nice to be doing the bidding of that clown? No, not in the slightest. A man bowing down to another man was disgraceful in every stretch of the definition, even more so when treated like a slave who had no choice but to obey. On the other hand, this Oscar would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't given a hell of a pitch, enough to put concerns to the side for the moment.

Instead, the frustration was pitched towards his target of the day; Yuusui. When first approached with the news of his task, this Oscar raised his eyebrow when Subaru placed the file down in his face, noticing that while it looked to be as comprehensive as ever, the area where the Quirk would be placed had been stricken out. Redacted like it was a sensitive government document, something that the Foundation had never done.

As footsteps shifted from a sprint to a lighter camber, this Oscar peered around every corner he came across, eventually working his way back into an area with an acceptable amount of light. Having to work on imperfect information was annoying, sure. However, what drove him even more mad was the equally maddening layout, which felt like something Subaru would've drawn up in a fever dream. So much for the promised freedom that had been dropped on his lap...

But at the end of the day, it didn't really matter. This Oscar looked over to his right hand, which gripped the weapon he intended to use in the inevitable fight. It was a long, deathly sharp knife that could cut into the concrete walls with no regard for any resistance. The hilt was black, darker than the shadows that were omnipresent around it earlier, whilst the tip was the most brilliant gold money could buy. One might even call this weapon a prized possession.

Now, the only thing he needed to do was find the little runt and make sure that this job was a one and done situation. Of course, he had to work within certain parameters that Subaru had handed to him, such as "No killing," and "Try not to drink his blood," being the fun killing restrictions that made him sigh and place his hands on his hips. Having to keep his true nature down was exhausting, a special kind of torture unto himself.

What this Oscar was not expecting, though, as he was in the midst of his search for Yuusui, was the invisible weight that suddenly slammed itself into his back. Without any forewarning, the teacher suddenly found himself assaulted from behind. "The… Fuck..!?" He gutted out, feeling what had to be arms wrapped around his waist.

No matter how hard the struggle to escape was, nothing would budge, no matter how much this Oscar thrashed about. The sheer surprise of being assaulted out of nowhere was enough for him to drop his knife to the ground, trying to wrestle himself out of the waist lock he found himself in. By the invisible weight pressed into his body, the brunette teacher knew for a fact whatever force this was happened to be lighter.

Therefore, there was only one move he needed to bring this sudden fight back into his control. Whilst this Oscar still tried to brute force his way out of the waistlock, gears turned over in his head upon seeing the knife on the ground before him. A sinister grin broke out across his face as he reached down for it, using every perceived inch of his power to make a move for the weapon. Fully in the expectation that whoever was holding him back would likely attempt to stop him no matter what.

Just as planned, as soon as this Oscar pressed forward in his plan, he felt the weight on his back shift down. It felt like someone had just climbed up there, the phantom feeling of legs locking around his body in an attempt to drive him to the ground, was exactly what had been planned for this entire time.

With the same sinister grin on his face, this Oscar turned his momentum on a dime. One moment, he was bending for the knife, the next second he had locked his arms around where he assumed the legs were and raced backwards into one of the many melding walls that littered the surrounding area.

The attack was met with the wonderful sound of a massive thud, one that couldn't be hidden by any invisibility tricks. The painful groan, dry-heave and all, also couldn't be hidden any longer. Rapid, shallow breathing broke out, another signal of his attack's success. "Hehehe… Well played… But… Not enough…" A dark chuckle broke out upon this Oscar being freed, letting him waltz over and pick up the knife. "To beat… Ol' Jackie…"

Oscar Morales

Quirk: Homonym!

Oscar's something of a head case! At any given moment, should the right circumstances come into play, any personality can come to inhabit his body! The switched personality can truly be anything, with one switch he could be a Master of Biology and the next an expert in kung fu. His memories of switching are always muddled, but certain personalities like to make an appearance more than once…

With the shackles now well and truly off, Oscar Jack could now fully revel in the scene in front of him. How had he been so silly beforehand? The painful breathing of who he could only assume to be an invisible Yuusui was more obvious than night turning to day, the fact he hadn't heard it at first was something he was going to be slapping himself over for the foreseeable future.

But that happened to be his only marker. No matter how bright the surrounding area had gotten, the fluorescent lights softly buzzing above their heads, there was no shadow coming from the teen that he had just smashed into the wall.

The rapid, shallow breathing that had previously marked Yuusui's presence had vanished as soon as it had arrived, once more making it nearly impossible for Jack to find out where the other was headed.

However, just like before, he'd soon find out as an immeasurable force of muscle slammed into him from behind. Yuusui was no slouch, he couldn't afford to be one in his previous line of work. One could argue that his body was right there alongside Jack's power wise, perhaps even more impressively built than his DID riddled teacher's.

It easily felt like a two-hundred-pound truck slamming into one's back if one was caught unaware, cracking ribcages left, right, and centre without any regard for human life. The powerful shoulder thrusts would've been deadly for Jack in a normal situation, but as the ramming attack from Yuusui sent him into the same wall he had chucked the teen into, the painful snap of his ribs reached his ears. A grimace quickly spread across his face, replacing the sadistic aura with something closer to rage.

"…So… You do… Have something…" Jack etched out; his hand pressed against different areas of his chest to check for the full extent of the damage. His eyes gazed in front of him, his back pressed against the wall meant that there was only one way for Yuusui to come at him now. "Interesting…"

If he had gone down to blows like this in the past, then Jack might as well have taken a nice long piss all over his life's work. Getting a few broken ribs had never stopped him before, if anything, the sadistic grin that had been glued onto his face returned in full force as soon as he stepped back up to stable footing.

The knife pointed out towards Yuusui, Jack using it as a way to keep track of where he heard the breathing come from. "Hehehe… You should… Shut your… Mouth more… Young one…" He cackled out, all power going to his sense of hearing, blocking out any other external stimuli that would distract him from finding his target.

Said target huffed under his breath, Jack's back pressed against the wall was just about the worst thing that could've happened for Yuusui. For many others, this might have been where they were able to abuse their dominance, but for Yuusui, whose Quirk never worked to that same dominant extent, it was a massive block in the road.

All he could do now was hold his breath as much as he could as stared at the knife, one wrong move and then everything would've been over.

Yuusui Migoro

Quirk: Wraith!

With Wraith, Yuusui's porcelain-like skin shatters like glass before reconstructing and turning transparent, rendering him invisible. His skin cells move in a 'rippling' effect as could be observed with how the scale-like fragments turn over, similar to laying your hands on a sequin pillow. Wraith also allows Yuusui to adjust his skin cells to mimic certain wavelengths. In a sense, he's the perfect tool for stealth!

However, even that couldn't be done for more than a few seconds at a time. It was something he had never been able to rectify about his Quirk, no matter how many training sessions he had; or the number of times they had tried to work around it by strapping him with some kind of silent breathing apparatus.

Instead, all he could hope was his constant movement, from left to right, and then back again would work well enough to through Jack off his scent fully. Although, the constant swinging of the knife to exactly where he was each time did nothing to ease the teen's growing nerves.

Nerves that were soon justified as soon as Jack lunged out with the knife without warning. The murderous personality inhabiting his teacher had waited long enough, picked his moment with careful precision, and simply couldn't hold back the glee he had from finally being allowed to do this again.

The swipe was to the left, barely gashing Yuusui, who jumped quickly to his right in an attempt to dodge the blade further. The first impact of steel on flesh was agonising for the teen, the skin cells that had been ripped off by the sharp blade transforming back into their normal state. Trace amounts of blood began to seep out of that area as well, leaving a little red trail behind him.

The bloody stream that followed was perhaps the worst thing to happen to Yuusui, right next to the immense pain he had to bite back with a powerful gritting of his teeth. The small river that was left behind made his invisibility almost worthless in the grand scheme of things, painting a target on his body for Jack to always know where he was. Painting a target for the teacher to abuse.

Abuse it he did. Jack grinned triumphantly at the sight; everything was playing out just like he imagined it in his head. So many people in the past thought they could match up to him, to the point it actually got rather annoying as opposed to fun slashing them all down to size. They could never fathom the sheer extent he thought ahead of them, and Yuusui's little mishap was all it took to remind him of that fact.

All it took was one moment, one mistake and dominance could be established just like that by the veteran killer that inhabited Oscar's body. With no reason to keep his movements limited, Jack smelt the blood in the water and went in on the attack again, slashing wildly in the direction of Yuusui with little regard for what he might have hit. "Welcome… To the… Real world!" He proclaimed.

Yuusui had to backpedal hard, a situation made worse by the increasing difficulty he had in keeping the pain down to an absolute minimum. When you were trying to play dodgeball in school, it was hard enough trying not to bump into people and avoid the multiple balls coming your way all at once. Right now, the brunette felt like he was playing a more extreme version of that, trying to manoeuvre his body out of the way whilst also making sure not to aggravate the wound on the side of his torso.

A dark eternity, with nothing but pain and paralysing agony waiting. It was all so delightfully familiar.

Jack's attempted assault was nothing short of inexorable like he had been replaced by a perpetual motion machine. The worst part was that each successive swing cleaved in closer to Yuusui, slashing the dust particles clean in two right in front of his chest, and there was no way the teen could run forever. Jack knew that more than just about anyone in this world.

That was why his was always a fight he was going to win, so long as he kept it on his own terms. So long as he could dictate the pace, so long as he could set the rules, he'd be invincible in just about any fight or situation he wanted to be in. The sweet shot he soon landed on Yuusui's chest, right below the brunette's left pectoral muscle, was the fruit of that labour. A gleeful gleam possessed his eyes as he cackled, hearing the beautiful sound of a dull thud on the ground.

No amount of invisibility in the world was going to save Yuusui from the pain, pain that felt so familiar, just like how this whole location felt ripped straight out from one of his nightmares. It had reminded him at every twist and turn of everything he wanted to get away from, everything that Kyte had promised him whenever the vampire had met him and the old man in that dingy little bar.

The amount of pain was so intense that he barely felt his skin start to retreat back to the normal from its shattered state, unable to hold onto the power of the Quirk as it too began to cry out in a kind of pain. The scar that littered the side of Yuusui's chest was already tender to touch to this day, but the new one that joined it had the horrible reality of being fresh, brand-new blood to be spilt like a waterfall.

His right hand slammed down repeatedly on the concrete ground, the adrenaline running through his soul causing him not to register that specific pain. Still, he writhed as much as one could writhe, and it made him feel like such a pathetic wretch. Those footsteps that approached him were evidence of that, the pain on his left side so great that he was nothing more than a sitting duck for Jack.

Jack kneeled on the ground before Yuusui, a mocking leer on his face as he tossed the knife from hand to hand. "Was that… All it… Really took…? Subaru… Promised me… So much… More…" The tone of his voice spoke nothing to the disappointment in his soul, and the increasing desire within it to take liberties with what he had been ordered to do. A few extra scars wouldn't hurt, would they? Not him at least!

With Yuusui an open canvas before him, Jack slowly got to work, one never wanted to make sure they rushed their art. Art was like an explosion at times, a burst of passion being vomited onto a wet canvas with a bunch of happy little accidents on them. At other times, it was like this. A slow, methodical beat.

Ignoring the cut he had placed in himself, and the ones that had already been present, Jack brought the knife to the top of Yuusui's chest. His eyes fluttered with the ideas that filled his head, how he would mark this kid with the same makings that he had littered on himself all those years ago. There was nothing wrong with an artist wanting to make sure he got his signature on the piece.

However, as soon as he tried to break the skin and get to work, he suddenly found an extra weight on his knife wielding arm. Amid his reverie, his dreams of making sure his work went noticed forever, he had forgotten to keep track of the canvas in front of him. His eyes widened in shock as he realised Yuusui's right hand was crushing his arm, vice-like didn't begin to describe the power of the grip.

"More…?" Yuusui's deep voice rumbled, taking on a tone that was far too powerful for someone like him. "You were promised… More?" The teen's pneumatic grip got stronger, the power of multiple hydraulic pumps behind it as it began to crush Jack's hand like it was made out of wet méringue.

For once, Jack hadn't expected something like this to turn up. The scene of pain he had seen before him had been so vivid, so visceral that so many people in the past had wilted under it. The idea that all of a sudden, he had been placed on the back foot was baffling. His eyes were still as wide as ever.

"I'll show you… I'll show you MORE!" Yuusui proclaimed, now twisting and cracking Jack's hand backwards, forcing the desperate, makeshift submission into a power play. The popping of the other's wrist joints, like the sound of bubble wrap being played with by a toddler, was music to his ears that encouraged him on further.

Forcing himself through the pain on his left side, he took hold of Jack's left hand too and implemented the same knuckle lock. Huffing out a quick breath, puffing out a groan of pain, Yuusui pushed upwards and forward. For once, his glassy eyes were more than just cosmetics that reflected nothing. This time they reflected with a special kind of savagery inherited from birth.

Jack tried to push back, shaking the startled look out of his own eyes. His knife had fallen back down to the ground, leaving him in a test of brute strength with the injured Yuusui. If you asked him a few seconds prior if he could win it, the murderous personality would've given a hearty laugh and asked you not to insult him like that again.

However, right now, his shock grew larger once more, settling in closer to panic. The strength he was receiving from Yuusui was inhuman like the teen had been possessed by an otherworldly entity hell-bent on punishing Jack for all his crimes. His mouth ran dry… He wasn't losing, was he?

Jack had been forced down to one knee, right as Yuusui was able to get up to his own two feet ago. The teen, buoyed by the massive turnabout in fortunes, took the opportunity he saw before him by the scruff of its neck. With no regard for the life of the man in front of him, he crushed downwards with all the force he could muster.

Yuusui wouldn't stop, no matter if all he heard coming from the other ends were cries for help. He had done that only once before, and it was arguably the biggest mistake of his life.

No matter how bad the bleeding of his pectoral got, staining that entire side of his body a crimson red, Yuusui pushed through it all. He wanted to see the man in front of him quiver, wanted to see him on his knees as he should be, and wanted nothing more than to lick his lips at the suffering he inflicted.

The more Yuusui pressed down, the more desperate Jack became for a way out. His shoulders and elbows were starting to come under immense pressure, the cracking of joints and popping of muscles that never had been under any kind of torment before this moment, everything provided to be nothing short of unnatural for Jack.

Casting his eyes downwards, he spied his knife off to the side. Whilst before, during the initial skirmish, he had managed to trick Yuusui there was little chance he was going to be as successful as last time. However, he was nothing if not resourceful. Sticking his leg out, Jack fully intended on using it as a conduit to pull the knife in close enough. Whether it served as a distraction or if it served as some kind of serious power play, it mattered not.

However, as soon as Jack stuck his leg out, Yuusui caught onto the plan with an incredible, otherworldly sixth sense. Slamming his knees down on Jack's chest, the teen stopped him in his tracks with one fell move. "No. You're not getting it… You're not escaping!" The vitriol with which he spoke was unnatural for the normally cautious teen, spitting venom like he was a rattlesnake.

An entire person's weight across your chest was painful no matter who you were, and the addition of the knuckle lock that pressed his hands above his head only added on to that for Jack. Still, he wasn't out of it just yet. All he needed to do was find a way out of this and then re-establishing his dominance would be as easy as farting in time with a thunderstorm.

Yet, as he tried to bridge his way upwards and power through the hold, Yuusui pounced on the opening he had been given. Yuusui had been very meticulous in this hold, you see, leaving Jack no other way to escape other than having to perform a very dangerous, very risky neck bridge to get into the correct position.

What that resulted in was an opening of space right above the teacher's neck and right below it as well, the exact scenario that Yuusui had been waiting on. Therefore, it should've come as no surprise when a boot slammed down hard on Jack's neck, crushing the other's windpipe in one brutal move, with the whimpering sounds of a painful cry sounding like the wheezing of an unused rubber duck.

The space behind his neck was also still open for Yuusui to assault it, the brunette slithered like slime across the ground and behind Jack. From there, he rained down absolute hell on the teacher's neck, striking it with vicious elbow after vicious elbow. Each time it landed, Yuusui was driven more and more by a savage desire to inflict as much pain as he could, which only lead to more blows coming to the back of the head. His prized target area, no less.

However, Yuusui still wasn't finished. Not even as the wheezing got lower and lower in volume until it ceased fully, Jack's body going fully limp in Yuusui's arms as he was evidently knocked out and unable to continue. Instead of doing the honourable thing and stepping back, happy that he had passed his test, the teen continued the assault. More blows rained down to the back of the dead, sticking with the flat of his palm, the point of his elbow, and even a few knee strikes to make sure the deed was fully done.

But even that wasn't the end of it, not by a long shot. As his breathing slowed to a crawl, his eyes dilating down to small pinprick pupils, Yuusui wrapped his arms and hands around Jack's head. He was going to squeeze the life out of him… Inch by inch… Breath by breath…

…It felt… Almost nice… Almost nostalgic… The fleeting nature of life presented in front of him once more… In his control… Just like old times… Just like Father taught him…

Heh… it almost… It almost made him want to sleep…

"That's enough! All rise!"

Right as Yuusui had put the hold in deeper, dropping his forearm right against the throat he had crushed moments earlier, another voice called out to him. One he remembered very well, and would usually find himself know-towing to, but for now… all he wanted… was to stay in this familiar, hideous mould he found himself in…

But the voice came back, making Yuusui gurn at the thought he had to leave this sweet moment behind. This time, the voice spoke with a vengeance and the tone of an all-powerful, all-conquering emperor. "I don't think you heard me; I said ALL RISE!"

Grunting as he turned his head around, dropping his hold over Jack Oscar's neck like he was being told to head to bed by a strict parent, Yuusui spied the form of the all-mighty Kyte Niijima staring down at him.

Suddenly, whatever had possessed Yuusui during the course of the fight, let his system as soon as it arrived, and the teen instantly looked around him like he had never seen this place in his life. "Niijima-sensei… Am I…? Was this… Fujinaga-san's test?" The glassy-eyed brunette hadn't looked down yet, and his voice spoke to some kind of innocence of what had just happened.

Kyte's footsteps were even louder than his voice, boots crashing and crushing the concrete and rubber beneath them. The pace of his steps was also poignant, much faster than they had been during the brief times Yuusui had been with the vampire lord. "I should've known this was one of his… Fucking moron…!" Kyte seethed under his breath, frustration building in his tone.

It was then that the adrenaline finally started to leave Yuusui's system, and he looked down at himself. If Kyte didn't know any better, he would say that the small flash of emotion he saw in the other's eyes was something akin to horror. Both towards the state of himself and to the state of the man lying at his feet.

"Oh... No… I didn't… Niijima-sensei! Tell me that I didn't…!" Yuusui stuttered out, pressing a hand to the side of his left pectoral in an attempt to quell the bleeding. His tone reeked of desperation, almost like he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince Kyte.

The attempt to garner some kind of sympathy fell on deaf ears, not as if there was a single part of Kyte's body that would empathise in the first place. The blue-haired vampire stared down at the scene with a look of disdain, like it was nothing more than dirt on the bottom of his shoe. "You and Morales were the only people here. You tell me, Sweathog." The disgust in his tone was the same as the one on his face.

Yuusui, meanwhile, didn't want to believe what he was hearing or seeing whatsoever. He was right back to how he had been during the first moments he had woken up, his body quivering, wrecked with anxiety and hysteria over the idea he was the one responsible for what happened. The warm, constant trickle of blood pressing through his dirty fingers was the constant reminder of that reality.

"But… I did it! I passed, didn't I?!" Once more, the teen tried to ignore that reality and focus on the world he wanted to believe in. The less he thought about what he had done, the less he would feel bad about it… At least, that's how it always worked before… He wasn't so sure about it now, he wasn't sure of much of anything anymore.

"Is that so?" Kyte said, skulking and circling Yuusui like a buzzard hunting a person soon to die. With careful movements, the coat that usually hung off his shoulders was dispensed to the ground, his gloves soon joining them until he took position across the teen and beckoned his hands out. "Show me then! Show me! FIGHT ME!"

Yuusui's eyes widened faster than the speed of light. If he wanted to deny reality before, he had no choice in attempting it right now. Thoughts of what had occurred between him and Oscar were replaced with those trying to cobble together the incomprehensible scene before him. "Wh-What?! You can't be serious, Niijima-sensei?" His voice broke out into a quiver, trying to reconcile all the emotions was proving to be very difficult.

Kyte rubbed his hands together, flexing them, getting them ready to be used in violence for the first time in so, so long. "If I wasn't serious, I wouldn't be here. Think of me as the last path on making sure you're worthy of staying with us full time." The vampire spoke with an air of finality, knowing he held Yuusui's fate in his hands.

With little other choice left of what to do, Yuusui struggled up to his wobbly feet. Whether he understood it or not, it was going to happen regardless of what he thought of it. The only thing he could control was his own actions, and he was going to need them to be flawless to get through this. His hands were still pressed to his sides, meaning they were going to be useless. He needed a serious plan to get through this.

However, if Yuusui thought he was going to get any time to come with one as he did with Oscar, he was sorely mistaken. The second he was up to his feet, Kyte sped up to meet him and instantly took control of the situation, not even leaving a second long enough for Yuusui to catch his breath.

Two powerful hands crushed Yuusui's wrists, the black, claw-like fingernails dug into Yuusui's skin. A complete reversal of the previous fight, where the teen had managed to look the elder Oscar into the very same hold. Was… Was Kyte watching him the whole time then? Did… Did he do everything, leave everything here, on purpose?

Once more, Yuusui didn't get any time to think. "WEAK! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS!" Opening up his, Kyte's hand swung back with such vicious speed that when it struck the bare skin of Yuusui's chest it sounded like the crack of a whip. A chop so powerful that not only was there a handprint now etched on the teen's chest, but the inklings of blood started to seep from the struck area.

For Yuusui, experiencing it was like having a knife slash across your chest. It was quick, precise to a fault, and would've even more serious damage had it been laid in deeper, much like Oscar's attack earlier. He wasn't an idiot; he knew that he had to thank his lucky stars that his torso being turned into kebab meat was the tamest outcome of the strike.

Kyte wasn't finished. Almost as soon as the first strike had landed, the vampire grabbed a hold of Yuusui's wrist again. "PITIFUL!" Soon, another chop was unleashed, thundering across the skin like a tsunami of pain, tearing pieces of skin right off of the top of the chest. The handprint that had started to form before now turned purple, a testament to the utter fury that the strikes were being thrown with.

If the first one had simply winded Yuusui, the second one was cataclysmically worse. His knees buckled, unable to live up to the job of carrying his chest any further. The dull thud as he crumpled to the floor was more painful than any chop Kyte had thrown at him so far, his breathing haggard and spotty at best. A shaky hand went up to investigate his chest, lapping up traces of blood that began to seep underneath his fingernails. Even if it wasn't as much blood as earlier, Kyte had just busted him open with only one of his hands… God, that was scary…

Even though Yuusui had fallen, Kyte still retained total control of the teen's right arm. Something he intended to use to great effect, a malevolent aura radiating out from him as he brought his hand back one more time. "FIGHT BACK!" He yelled, delivering the third and final chop he planned to execute. Compared to the previous two, this one lacked the wince-inducing sound, but had been delivered with such venom that it more than made up for it with destructive power.

The amount of pain Yuusui had been through during this test already was one thing, the manic Oscar having pushed him to near enough the limit in his desperate struggle to survive. When Kyte had first descended upon him, even the world's best athlete or hero would've had barely the energy reserves necessary to put up a half decent fight. Now, the three chops that had left such a powerful mark behind on his skin had driven all the gusto out of him.

The newest addition to the Foundation lay face down on the ground, Kyte, perhaps with somewhat sinister intentions, had relinquished his grip on Yuusui's arm. The residue of which came in the form of a large, brown bruise that started to form down the forearm. The brunette tried his best to put pressure on it, covering it with his shaky free hand and letting the already dripping blood flow freely.

"Tch, get up! We're not done here until I say we're done, grow a pair and fight back!" Kyte demanded, sounding more irritated than sadistic. As Yuusui suspected, the vampire had been present the whole time during the test, watching from a safe distance and ready to step in should things get out of hand.

Get out of hand they did, and he was forced to step and conduct the rest of the test himself. What Yuusui had managed to do with Oscar, not only outmuscling but also outthinking him was an achievement unto itself. All that was left now was to see how he would do against the Foundation's Kingpin.

Whether he would float away like a butterfly, or if he would fly away in the static of this cruel world like a blackbird.

Yuusui found himself unable to say anything, the pain far too great for him to exclaim in anything other than groans, moans, and grunts every time he tried to will his body back up to his feet. There simply wasn't anything left in the tank right now, and as he lay facedown on the floor, he snatched at each breath that came his way.

Yet, as his fingernails scraped across the ground, he refused to believe he had given it all. There had to be something in the tank still, the last drop of adrenaline that would at least prove to Kyte that he wasn't going to be beaten into the curb.

Those scraping fingernails came to be balled into fists, fists that pounded the ground as Yuusui tried to fire himself up into one last stand. Was he going to win? Hell no, not in a million years did he think he was going to win this fight. But he would go down swinging come hell or high water.

Much to the amazement of Kyte, his red eyes watched the slow ascension of Yuusui back to his two feet. Sure, the teen was swaying more than a loose tree branch in the middle of a monsoon, but the sheer tenacity that it took to even come back to some kind of footing was astounding, There was no doubt in Kyte's mind that Yuusui had no idea where he was, yet chose to continue to the desperate last.

Yuusui huffed out a strangled breath, barely getting his shaky hands up as he beckoned Kyte towards him. His whole body was bruised, beaten, and bloodied, likely to give Sateriasis the exact headache that Subaru had planned. However, his will was that much stronger than the sum of his injuries, a determination even he didn't know he possessed. "I…I'm… still… Still here…"

Kyte was internally slackjawed, taking a few moments to shake his head clear from the stunning nature of the sight in front of him. Grabbing the hands that were beckoned towards him, dodging one last right hook that was sent his direction, Kyte gave one final word to Yuusui. "Heh, too late."

Wrestling Yuusui back down to the ground with trivial ease, his own power so much greater than the brunette's weakened state, Kyte pulled the two arms up by Yuusui's head and pointed them towards the heavens. A rainfall of boots to the head then followed, repeatedly smashing, ricocheting, and brutalising the back of Yuusui's skull.

It was relentless. In a sadistic kind of way, it could've easily been used as the baseline for some techno song with how rhythmic it was becoming.

Perhaps then, Yuusui was lucky that Kyte stopped after only ten strikes, not wanting to prolong this any longer than was necessary. The second he saw those glassy eyes close, alongside the feeling of the grip around his wrists fade, he pulled back instantly, leaving the bloodied scene in front of him.

To say it had turned into a slaughterhouse would be an understatement, but one they could easily manage with the little extra ingredient that Sateriasis had managed to procure the other day. For the first time in over fifteen years, the vampire was happy to have the nurse by his side for once, made a nice change of pace.

Looking down to the floor, he squatted beside the still passed out body of Oscar. As his crimson eyes scanned over the teacher's form, he shook his head upon seeing him wearing only four of the rings that the Twins had so gratefully handed to him upon his first day at the Foundation. Kyte knew that Subaru liked to take liberties with his work, to put it mildly, but maybe now he would have to finally step in and lay down the law.

Ugh, what a pain…

Hoisting Oscar over one shoulder, he moved over to Yuusui and soon had him slung over the other without so much as breaking a sweat. He could come back for his coat and gloves later, the important part was getting everyone out of here whilst they were still in comparatively good condition.

Comparative to what it would be like if they were left behind, obviously.

Looking over to his left shoulder the carried Yuusui, Kyte couldn't help but return to the exact thoughts he had watching the teen during his test. Whether or not he succeeded or not was immaterial, Yuusui had proved one thing to Kyte.

Maybe some of these kids had what he was looking for after all.

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A/N: So, umm, yeah. Longest chapter I have ever written in my life, and I will not be doing something like this again. You all better enjoy this one, because fuck me I'm dead.

Anyway, see you on the next chapter.