'Sweet Dust, this was boring.'

"Roman, how far out are we?" "Just another mile or two. Hang on, ok?"

Roman used every bit of his willpower to keep from yawning as he leaned on his cane, idly watching Cinder and her little toadies examine all of his hard work. No doubt in a few minutes she'd come back his way, looking smug as shit before telling him he either needed to step up his work, get it done faster, and probably give her a foot rub. Like he could just snap his fingers and magic up some more Dust for her majesty. With herculean effort he managed not to roll his eyes, instead deciding to focusing on the crates, which only made him slightly less depressed.

"I'm cold, Roman." "Then stop using your damn semblance!"

All he could think of was the waste in profit. They currently had a stranglehold on Dust, the most consistently valuable commodity on this planet. He had the connections to sell every last flake and make enough money for him and Neo to disappear and retire quietly in Mistral..of course that was before his new 'boss' set fire to half the organized crime in Vale when they refused to bend the knee. Yeah, a lot of competition was well and truly gone, but a lot of folks in their work either went dark or left the city entirely, meaning he was the undisputed king of the ash heap.

"If I do, they'll get us." "I can protect you. Just stay with me!"

Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Do you think Romulus and Remus are ok?" "If they are, I'll blow their brains out!"

"Roman."

"Roman..." "No, Spumoni! They left us to die!"

Her rich voice made his ears twitch, the condescension made them burn, and the disapproving frown was the perfect balm. "Yes, my glorious overlord?" He kept his tone airy and pleasant, letting a leisurely smile curl his lips as he quietly pretended he didn't dream of smearing that pretty face across a few blocks of pavement. He'd be a liar...more of a liar...if he didn't say she was beautiful. She was, but after a little bit the pretty just got tedious. If you throw a rock towards Beacon, you'll probably hit five smoking hot Huntresses, and about fifteen Hunters that have some tragic backstory.

"They got scared.." "Like we weren't after that crash? Instead of helping, they ran like the bitches they are!"

"I don't appreciate your tone, Roman."

"Heh. That's not..polite to call Faunus that." "Moni?"

"And I don't appreciate all this waste." His free hand gestured towards the crates the White Fang mongrels were loading up, ignoring how she was trying to intimidate him with a quirked eyebrow. "Especially when you don't tell me what the plan is. I can't be more efficient if I don't have specifics." In his mind, a plan needed to have at least a loose framework with lots of wiggle room for when things went to shit. Because every plan goes to shit if it hangs around too long. And this plan was taking Too. Damn. Long!

"I'm sorry, but I'm...getting so tired.." "Don't you dare!"

Cinder's sigh was melodramatic, but the way she was straightening her posture told him she didn't appreciate the snark. "You don't need to know the specifics to do your job, Torchwick." Ooh. Last name. She IS getting impatient. "When you have enough, I'll let you know, and that's all you need to know." She leaned in and let the aura flare from her eye, and he smartly leaned back in case she actually started shooting bitch lasers out of it or something. "Understood?"

"Could you..*cough*..me a favor and look after Neo? She's gonna be so mad at me."

"Right, right." He tried to at least look intimidated by her as he held up his hands. "I'll be good." As the flame receded and her little monkeys snickered, he reminded himself that he wasn't afraid of her.

"Moni.."

He was afraid of her Boss.

"..yeah. I'll keep an eye on her."

Too many things didn't add up for there to be any other explanation. She had Atlesian Paladins, not cobbled together crap mechs, but the genuine article with that new car smell still in the interior. According to the mongrels, she came to them with Dust and lien to spare. But she didn't have her own help aside from the Blunder Twins, no actual concern for income, and is waaay too vague about the plan. To him that meant she had enough resources to get started, but had to bully her way into getting more mooks to do the heavy lifting, and was probably getting orders for the actual plan. She was middle management, but scary powerful middle management, which meant her boss was probably several magnitudes bigger and scarier than her. And that was the person he didn't want to upset.

Like the little princess she probably imagined she was, Cinder brushed some imaginary dirt from her dress and smiled. "I'm glad we could see eye to eye on that. Speaking of eyes," She looked around, her little gophers doing the same. "Where's that quiet sidekick of yours? Not getting into trouble, I hope." If that was some kind of threat, it was sad one. He'd put fair money on Neo against either of her two henchmen, even if that mint-haired sycophant has some illusion semblance like Neo said. Of the two of them, she just plain had the better way to get away.

But she probably wouldn't.

She'd do something to help him, probably merrily beating everyone she could along the way. Fun as it would be to see her juggle the pickpocket like a hacky sack, survival was the number one goal. "She's off scouting the next hit." He lied with a roll of his eyes. Overly dramatic gestures were good for hiding any actual tells. "I wasn't sure if we had enough Dust for 'the plan', so I've got her looking around in case we needed more."

"Ya know, I think I learned something after the other day."

"How very astute of you." Her condescension at this point was more tedious then anything. "We do need more, so I suggest you get it as quickly as possible." Well at least she hadn't asked for a foot rub. Just an ass kissing. "Don't disappoint me." With that half-assed warning made she decided to just turn around and leave, though he did take a moment to admire the fact she really did have an extraordinary rump. Roman was in the midst of want to write a ballad about dat booty, when he saw the green one glaring daggers at him. Grey one was looking amused in general, but they were both still hanging around like they thought they were intimidating. It was cute.

"I don't like being a Huntsman."

Better send the kids off too, or they'll start to think daddy doesn't love them as much as mommy. "Go on, kids. I'm off to do grown up stuff." He made a dismissive gesture, when they finally got the message and slinked off after their boss. When the door finally shut, he rapped his cane on the ground three times and waited for a response. The three soft taps on the back of his coat put a smile to his lips. "When'd you get back?" He looked over his shoulder as Neo finally revealed herself, the world peeling away in almost hypnotic fractal patterns that had every color of the rainbow before flickering away to reveal the Neopolitan underneath.

"It's what happens at the end, ya see."

As she gestured, something took his notice that most wouldn't have even been able to tell about his little illusionist. "That's faascinating, but how about a debrief in private?"

"Even when we save the day, the people won't remember our names, no matter how much blood and sweat we shed."

That seemed to surprise her, blinking several times before slowly nodding and following him up the stairs into the ramshackle office he'd claimed in this dump of a hideaway. He missed his old place of work. Leather chairs, some really nice art, mahogany wood, it was tastefully classy but still rubbed in now much better he was then most people. Now here he was, slumming it like he'd just peeled himself out of the transport from Vacuo. Not that he missed home or anything, but seeing how far down they were being dragged actually galled him more than pretty much anything that'd come out of Cinder's pretty petty mouth. He just couldn't get comfortable in the ugly office chair he was stuck with, and Neo actually wiped at the desk before hopping up. Good girl. All about presentation.

"And when we die, they say we'll be remembered at some pissant memorial statue?"

Which is where this little quandary took him. "Take off the illusion, Neo." She gave him an innocent stare and gestured at herself. He rolled his eyes. "Do I look as stupid as anyone else in this operation? I can tell when you're trying to pull the wool over my eyes." He hoped the 'get on with it' gesture would convince her, but she still seems hesitant. As he prepared to explain that yes, he's been sweeping the place for surveillance crap, the illusion began to fracture. Not as fast as the last one, but little pieces at a time, like she was hesitant to let it go. Just that errant thought was putting him on edge, and he could feel his blood pressure spike at the bruises and mussed clothing that she finally deigned to show him. Rather than stammer out something or get worked up, he took a breath and sighed loudly. "What happened?"

"..." She quickly explained with a mix of sign language and understandable gestures.

"Fuck that!"

He quirked an eyebrow at her explanation. "What the hell is a Kacchan?"

"I'm not dying in the dirt for some ignorant schlubs."

She rolled her eyes and pulled out her scroll, thumbing around before finally playing some video she had.

"I'm gonna survive, no matter what!"

"..." She gestured to the screen for emphasis.

"You two? Not so much."

Oh this was hilarious!

"Oh stop crying, Remus. You dumb animals brought this on yourselves."

"Holy shit, he actually made you take him seriously." Just thinking about it made him chuckle, which turned into an actual laugh when she glared and pouted at him. "Oh come on. I never get to see you actually pushed for a change." He brought his amusement down to a chuckle when he noticed she looked ready to drop kick him. She never cared for how hard it was to get boot prints out of a white coat, the cheating little pain in the ass. "So, considering there was someone else there to actually take the footage, you already took care of things right?" As he spoke, he was reaching for his scroll to get someone to clean up whatever mess she'd left. It wouldn't be perfect, considering how sudden it was, but he could make sure no discernible parts could be found anywhere nearby.

"Thanks for waiting out here Neo. I'm done with the trash."

The silence she gave him was deafening.

"..." "Better you hadn't. Your sister never would'a forgiven me."

"Neo..you didn't just give some goody two-shoe kids your contact information, description, and semblance..and let them walk away, right?" Oh gods she not looking him in the eye. Why did she like making his life more difficult? "And what makes you think they won't tell their teachers, give them all this info, and put this entire operation at risk?" He knew better then to yell at her, since it just made her more stubborn, but he really wanted to know what the hell she was thinking.

"..." "Yeah. I miss her too."

"..." Neo like to think her retort was succinct and perfectly believable.

Roman didn't. "All of that is bullshit, but I'm willing to go with it." Not like he had a choice at this point, setting his hat on the table and sighing loudly after considering her explanation. "If you'd just admitted you thought he was too cute to murder, I'd have gone with that."

And that's when she drop kicks him.

"Welp, it's you'n me now kid. You watch my back, I'll watch yours."

"AH-HAHAHAHA HAAAA! It is good to see you again, young ones! For some of you it's been a little while since the last time we had one of these exercises! Well, I'm happy to have you all back here and am glad to see that you're all ready to take that next, important step to becoming Heroes of Remnant, Huntsmen and Huntresses!" Everyone immediately brightened up as Toshinori spoke up, a grin on the man's face. "Now then... as I'm sure you've noticed, behind me is a large obstacle course roughly made to look like a large chunk of downtown Vale-"

"Kind of hard to not notice..." Yang had whispered under her breath, sounding mighty impressed. Yang had just vocalized what most of the class was thinking as they all stared up at the very large buildings that had made up this particular obstacle course. Toshinori nodded.

"Indeed. For today's exercise five of you at a time will be put into a group! Now, this is an individual exercise so no surprise that you all will be competing against each other... however, the competition will be indirect in this case." With that, Toshinori produced a sash with the words 'THANK YOU' embroidered on it in big old letters. "I'll be going to the very center of this obstacle course where I shall be in need of your rescue! Now then, your goal is to start on five far-flung corners of the course and, with what talents you have, get to the very center of it and save me before your peers do! As you start off on the far edges I imagine most of you will be too far apart from the others to meaningfully impact their progress but, as you grow closer to the center, you may just end up seeing each other more and more to do so!" They all nodded in understanding at the implication at that if one of them didn't build up a solid lead, they'd be in the thick of it going into the center of the race. "Consider each other obstacles on the way to saving a civilian, as you'll often have to face those in the case of Grimm attacks or terrorists plots.

"Now then, I'll be using my Scroll to randomly select groups for this exercise! Once your group is selected you all will be ordered by first name. Whoever's first name comes first gets to take first pick at one of the five starting points in the course, second picks second and so on! Is that clear?" Toshinori fished out his Scroll and pushes a few buttons on it. "Very well! The first group to go is..."

After some time, it actually turned out that Izuku was among the first groups of students to go. He got excited as he ran forward, even as some of the other competitors in his group started to mozy on forward. More than a few familiar faces joined him; Ruby and Shoto walk up to stand beside him, Ruby seemingly chomping at the bits in order to get her chance at the course while Shoto just calmly nodded at both of them. Owari Meisai, of all people, ended up joining them all... after his team got done waking him up first, of course. Finally, some Izuku had immediately recognized him from the security tapes from way back during his investigation into the bathroom bombings strutted forward; he was the guy with all the girls trailing after him. Even now several girls in the crowd called out after him and the guy just blew a kiss their way before standing with the rest of the students.

"Very well then! Mr. Midoriya, with your first name falling first as an 'I', you'll get first pick of the starting points in the exam! Make your choice carefully... it might not 'just' be about your strengths in this if you wish to get there first, after all." He nodded slowly, a bit confused, at that as he took a look at Toshinori's Scroll to pick a starting point.

"The back alleys, that's what I'll pick as my starting location." Toshinori gave a grin as he nodded, patting him on the back and sending him off toward his starting location. Izuku took a deep breath as he stretched out his fingers, cracking them slightly as he walked along.

"What about you Mr. Meisai, what will you choose as your path to come and rescue me?" Izuku'd expect someone who, during their own fight, didn't seem to have 'much' in the way of movement abilities to look somewhat distraught, having been paired up against Ruby of all people in what basically amounted to a race. However, Owari still just looked sleepy, that parrot squawking a bit on his shoulder as he rubbed at his chin, as he pointed up.

"I'll start behind the tall buildings Toshinori, sir." Izuku saw Toshinori tilts his head slightly to the side, as if a little confused, before he shrugged.

"Alright, suit yourself young man. Go get them!" Toshinori, nonetheless, did his best to cheer on his student as Owari immediately walked off, yawning as he headed off toward the building. Izuku watched as, from a pack on his, Owari readied his sniper rifle and... a grappling hook with a length of rope? Well, Izuku couldn't say that the guy wasn't prepared or didn't have something for the occasion. Toshinori then turned to Ruby, the young girl super excited as she practically hopped in place.

"The straightaway on the street, Miss Rose?"

"YOU KNOW IT!" Immediately Ruby sprinted off towards the open street, Toshinori just laughing as he looked over at Shoto and the last guy.

"I'll take the last starting point. I'll find something that works for me there..." Toshinori nodded in understanding as Shoto immediately ran off, just leaving the last guy.

"Seems like you're last pick this time around." The young man just smiled and sighed, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

"Too bad, so sad... ah well, not like it matters. The plan remains the same as it did before." With that, the guy turned on his heels and blew out another kiss to the girls in the class. "Wish me luck, my beautiful hunnies!" Izuku just blinked in confusion as he continued walking, watching as the red haired young man walked off, his, er, 'hunnies' crying out for him and wishing him good luck.

'You know...Beacon can be weird sometimes.'

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Alright everyone, I see you've all made it to your starting positions!" Izuku took a deep breath as a megaphone goes off from deeper within the training grounds, Toshinori's voice booming out as he calls to each of you. "Now then, on my mark I want you all to really give it your all and make a dead sprint for me! Remember, in this scenario I'm a civilian who is in desperate need of your saving, so please hurry! My life is in your hands at this moment!" Izuku tensed his muscles as he called upon 5% of One For All, pushing it throughout his entire body as he activated Full Cowl, feeling the power course through his very being.

"On your marks!"

Izuku bent down, fingers just barely brushing against the ground as he got down into a sprinter's position.

"Get set!"

Izuku raised up a bit, coiling energy into his legs.

"GO!"

With that he was blazing through the alleyway. Without a direct line of sight in front of him, Izuku was depending on two things in order to get through this maze of buildings; first and foremost being his own natural sense of orientation. Izuku knew, roughly, where Toshinori was in comparison to where he had started and so he generally knew what direction to run in so that he would reach him straight away. The second was the sky; by looking up from time to time to find small signs in the clouds or just in how the sun was shining down on the alleys he was running through, Izuku waw able to additionally orient himself in the case of an emergency. Furthermore he could use this orientation in order to help him figure out if he was heading down the right path or if he might be heading out for a dead end.

Admittedly even Izuku was aware of the fact that he may very well be faced with a flip of a coin in some cases; there were some breaks in the alley where it would be very hard to tell which way was the right way and which one wasn't. Izuku was just going to have to do his best and, should the situation arise where he ended up hitting a dead end, he'd just have to do his best to make sure whatever mistakes he made didn't cost him too much time! He practically bounced off the walls as he navigated through the maze in front of him, quickly ignoring some obvious detours that would lead nowhere fast while bouncing and running through the various alleys. Time and time again it seemed like luck was on his side as he made his way through the alleys, gritting his teeth as he pushed his body forward in an attempt to make the time he needed!

As he ran through the alleys, Izuku noticed something out of the corner of his eyes; up in the sky above some of the buildings in the vague direction of the industrial park area was... was...

'Is that... is that the one guy with the girls?'

'IS HE FLYING?!'

Yes, as unlikely as it seemed, a pair of shimmering shapes, molded in the vague look of sets of wings, shined on the guy's back as he just casually flew through the sky. Izuku could hear his laughter ringing out as the guy effectively soared over any and all obstacles. From what Izuku could tell... those wings looked like solid Aura constructs, similar to Weiss' Glyphs. Was he using Dust at the same time? Perhaps Wind?

'ACK, WHY AM I FIXATING ON THIS GUY AND HOW HIS SEMBLANCE MIGHT WORKED! HE'S GOING TO FLY STRAIGHT TO TOSHINORI AND IF YOU DIDN'T STOP HIM THEN WHO ELSE-'

*BANG*

'... will?'

Izuku flinched as a tremendously loud shot rang out from one of the nearby rooftops and, though he couldn't see it, he'd swear he saw the trail of it passing through the sky as it soared right towards the flying guy. At first Izuku thought the shot missed as the vague trail he could just barely pick out didn't seem to be on course to hit the guy dead on. That impression is quickly smashed along with the guy's wings as the bullet smashed into the solid Aura constructs, an explosion of Flame Dust going off in conjunction with this as the pair of wing-like shapes shatter. There was a moment where the guy just hung there for a moment, as if held aloft by the momentum his Semblance provided.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

That was all too immediately brought to an end when the guy dropped like a load of bricks, immediately falling down and out of sight. Izuku winced as he kept running, hearing the sound of a human body smashing against several steel objects, some of them ringing out for quite a while. Well... good thing he was in these alleys. Something he hadn't considered was how all these buildings were keeping him out of sight and out of mind of everyone else. That made it safe for him to just keep running without worrying too much about being caught out... though how long that would keep up would be hard to say.

'Judging by the positioning of that shot and where it came from, I'd guess that was Owari... wow, I was really glad that this time it wasn't me in his sights.'

Taking a deep breath Izuku focused back on his running, continuing to bounce through the alleys as he continued sprinting. The odd sniper shot here or the sound of... something shattering, probably Shoto's ice, was heard there but, eventually, Izuku did finally make it to the building Toshinori was at the top of! He blinked slightly; the windows of the building had a sign on them... 'stand back'... huh, wonder why-

FWOOSH!

Izuku nearly screamed as suddenly the various windows light up, flames on the other side bursting to life. He heard a similarly surprised cry coming from another side of the building, sounding like it was Ruby, as Izuku watched the flames consume the paper signed on the other side.

Okay, so they didn't want Izuku to get to the top just by going inside and climbing a staircase or an elevator or something... fair enough.

This still seemed kind of dangerous though!

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves he took a look at the fire escape before him, the only way Izuku saw up the side of this building that he could reasonably take. Sure there were windowsills that Izuku might be able to grab on and try to hop up but... well, with the fire now on the other side of those windows, that didn't sound like a good idea.

'So the fire escape... how to handle it…'

Taking a deep breath he charged One For All through his body, feeling Full Cowl quickened his steps as Izuku immediately threw himself at the fire escape. Quickly grabbing onto the ladder he immediately pulled himself up the ladder, climbing run after run, outright skipping some, as Izuku made his way up a flight, getting onto the next level and immediately running around to do the same. So low to the ground with the metal bars of the fire escape keeping him sheltered, Izuku felt free to keep moving at a quick pace with minimal awareness of his surroundings, knowing that, for the moment, he was safe.

BAM!

At first Izuku flinched, thinking that Owari'd fired off another round of his sniper rifle... but then he paused when he realized that the sound was a lot closer than it had been before and, more importantly, coming from around his level of the building. His mind quickly snapped two and two together and Izuku realized that the shot fired wasn't Owari's but Ruby's, the hooded young girl firing it off... she was probably using it like she said she did before, to propel herself forward in conjunction with her Semblance. Izuku shuddered as he imagined the ground Ruby must be covering right now as she climbed up the building, hearing her footfalls a ways up above him as he swallowed a thick lump in his throat. If something didn't happen to stop her, Ruby would 'easily' reach the top of the building before anyone else.

Thankfully it did seem like someone moved to stop her... it just so happened to be a pain in the butt for Izuku as well. Izuku felt a sudden chill overtake him as, all at once, the terrain around him just shifted. A wave of sheet ice crawled around the sides of the building, enveloping it as it came his way. Izuku yelped as it ended up covering every last inch of the fire escape, coating the metal bars and floors in several inches of thick, blue ice courtesy of Shoto Todoroki. Immediately he felt his footing worsen as he nearly slipped and fell on his face, taking a moment to ease himself as he heard a similar cry of surprise from Ruby from the other side of the building.

Still, Izuku couldn't give up now just because Shoto's made it a bit harder... and Gods, did he make it harder. Izuku now had to be extra careful on the climb as every other step threatened to send him slipping, sliding and falling off this fire escape. Izku grit his teeth as he did his best to overcome it and, amazingly, he made headway! It's slower headway than before just because it was so hard to keep a grip or keep his footing but, nonetheless, he was making his way up the side of the building. Judging by the fire of a sniper rifle and Ruby's cried of excitement, it seemed that Ruby's not being deterred either. Eventually he heard the telltale crackling of ice, the sign that Shoto's using his power in a big way. He looked around but, finding no way to see him, he figured he'd just continue his climb...

BAM!

'Okay, THAT shot was DEFINITELY Owari.'

It erupted from a nearby rooftop, a loud gunshot being fired out across the sky and Izuku could 'hear' the explosion and the shattering of ice erupt on the other side of the building. A short 'ah' could be heard distantly, likely Shoto, as he heard the cracking of ice from somewhere below him on the building. Izuku couldn't be sure of where Shoto hit exactly or if he'd managed to catch himself using his powers, but it sounded like whatever plan he had just got shot out from under him.

Not taking a moment to rest he kept going himself, surprisingly keeping his grip and his footing. Still, at this point he was getting really nervous; even making progress as he had been, it still took him a few seconds to get to the top of the building even with how quickly he was running and climbing. Ruby was just making so much more progress than Izuku was and he wouldn't be surprised if-

"SHHHHHHOOT!"

-if she beat him?

Izuku heard the distinct sound of slippery, wet ice as he heard Ruby cry out suddenly, a loud crack accompanying this not long after Ruby had fired Crescent Rose again. It sounded so close to the roof, as if Ruby was 'right there' just barely within its grasp when that all occurred. Izuku heard Ruby give a few cries here and there and there's a moment of silence... right before he heard the sound of someone losing their grip.

"WITH MY LAST BREATH, I CURSE SHOOOOTOOOOOOO!" Ruby's voice fell beneath his ears as she cried out, Izuku's eyes went wide as it did. Izuku couldn't believe it, he actually stood a chance! All he had to do now was keep climbing and-

CLANG!

'-clang?'

Izuku looked up to the top of the building and see that, on one end, a metal grappling hook with a long length of rope tied to the end of it just got tossed to the top of the building he was climbing, the rope being taught so that the hook would secure itself nice and solidly. A tropical looking parrot immediately fly down onto the hook and, jumping on it and the rope a few times, it gave a little squawk. Realizing what was going on, and the fact that the rope was pulled tight and horizontal across the gap above him, Izuku looked over to the neighboring side of the building just across the alley from the one he was supposed to climb to see Owari. The sniper Huntsman-in-Training was securing the rope he held in his hands to something on the roof with him, giving it a good solid tug before nodding. The sleepy sniper looked down at Izuku, giving him a quick salute before he pulled something out of his coat...

An all too familiar little black ball.

'No.'

'No. No. No, no, no, no no no no no no!'

'I am NOT doing this again!'

Quickly bringing his hand up and flexing his finger against his thumb he built up a tremendous amount of One For All into it, easily reaching up to 100% of it in the blink of an eye.

"GLENN SMAAAAAAASH!" Izuku flicked his finger in the direction of the black ball and the rope, a rush of wind and power flowing forth from his Smash as it rushed up. Some of the metal of the fire escape that had been unlucky enough to be in the way bent under the pressure but didn't give while, as the black ball is struck it popped open...

To Izuku's surprise, rather than a whole bunch of caltrops like had been in the previous one he'd dealt with during Izuku's fight with him, this one had some kind of... inky black liquid inside of it that all splashed around as it was sent flying through the air. Izuku watched as the material smacked onto Owari and the part of the roof he's standing on while his shock wave very easily sent the hook and grappling rope flying. As the goop dripped down off of Owari and across the various areas it was splattered... the way it ran making it seem familiar to Izuku...

'Wait... is this... an oil slick?'

'Wait!'

'Is he actually going to throw an oil slick down onto the fire escape while I was already having such a hard time navigating Shoto's ice?!'

'WHAT A JERK!'

"Hmmm..."

Izuku snapped out of his thoughts as he heard a humming from Owari. Izuku looked up to see the young man rubbing at his slightly bearded chin, his eyes watching as his grappling hook and rope flew through the sky, the rope having been snapped by the force of his Glenn Smash and then carried again. "Hmmm..." Owari repeated, looking down at the slick substance that now coated him and a good part of the roof he was on. Izuku had to imagine it got over a lot of the place after having been carried by Izuku's Smash. "Hmmm..." Owari then glanced up to the other rooftop.

...

"Well... I don't see how this could 'possibly' lead to me falling off the roof and breaking my neck..."

Izuku couldn't help but blanch a little bit at that... yeah. Now Owari's only way to get across to the other roof was to make a jump for it and, compared to some of the other buildings, the gap between these buildings was a little larger. Plus, not for nothing, but the building was covered in ice; Izuku imagined it would be hard for anyone to keep their footing on this building after they made a jump for it. Provided Owari'd have any kind of footing at all from his own jump with the oil still slipping off of him. He was kind of in a no win scenario, even if he was physically adept which... well, Izuku didn't doubt that he had capabilities as a Hunter, but it seemed like moving around and jumping great distances might not be his forte.

Izuku did his best to ignore him while he climbed a bit more up the fire escape, doing his best to avoid the bits that had been bent by his Glenn Smash. The very cold nature of the ice actually ended up helping numb the pain in his finger as he kept on climbing up. Izuku heard Ruby's scream end after a moment before a loud shout of frustration could be heard from way below him, presumably Ruby was now doing her best to get back to climbing up the building against after having lost 'a lot' of ground. Eventually he looked back up to Owari, wondering just what he was up to. Izuku saw that his parrot's actually landed on his shoulder, the little tropical bird having picked at its wings to clean them. Owari himself.

"..."

Snoring. Izuku blinked in surprise as Izuku tilted his head to the side, disbelief probably very clear on his face.

'He's... asleep? Now of all times?!'

"... The people in this school are nuts..." Izuku remarked to himself, once again reminded of that fact as Izuku looked up to the top of the building, now so tantalizingly close, as Izuku resumed his climb.

With a lot of careful effort he eventually slapped his hand against the edge of the rooftop, groaning slightly as he pulled his way up the slippery surface. There were a few close calls here and there as Izuku threatened to slip and fall right off but, eventually, Izuku managed to fully pull himself onto the roof which, after a certain point, actually got pretty easy once he was able to just slide across the top of it while pulling himself. Izuku heaved a huge sigh, taking deep breaths as he, slowly but surely, force himself up to his feet.

"Ah, good to see you young man!" Izuku flinched for a moment, perhaps thinking that someone else, like Shoto or that wing guy, had actually managed to beat him up here. He looked up to see what laid before Izuku... and notice the sash being presented to him. "Thank you for rescuing me, young Midoriya! My life is saved thanks to you!"

...

Toshinori's theatrics only end up adding to this for Izuku as, with a shaky smile, he took the sash from Toshinori, smiling up at him as he nodded his head.

"Also..." Izuku look a little surprised as Toshinori's voice suddenly dropped to a whisper, the giant of a man reaching into one of the pockets of his Hunter's Outfit before pulling out a Scroll. On the screen was Izuku as he ran through the alleyways... Full Cowling on full display. "Excellent work, young man... I'm proud of you." With that, Toshinori even offered him a thumbs up as he gave his student a wide, proud smile...

Izuku did his best to hide his tears as he reached up his arm to wipe at his eyes.

As the sounds of other people approaching reached Izuku's ears Toshinori put the Scroll away and, in short order, Ruby ended up finally popping up onto the roof, taking large, gasping breaths as she put her hands on her knees. Shoto soon appeared shortly after, a small bit of ice having supported his journey up that he then stepped off of. The wing guy eventually found his way onto the rooftop, a few bruises on his skin still and his hair disheveled, but okay. Owari? Owari was still asleep on the rooftop after.

"The winner of this group's exercise is Izuku Midoriya! Good job to you all though! You each showed your skills and abilities to a great degree and I am reasonably satisfied with your showings!" Izuku smiled at that while the others just either groaned or, in Owari's case, his parrot squawked a bit.

'This was a good day.'

E/N: Starting us off and ending the Neo debacle (for now) is A Sundae With Roman by Preventer Squall.