Entrance Exam II
A/N: I am not sure if this is necessary, but I do want to err on the side of caution just in case.
Trigger warning: There is both a description of and talk about panic attacks in this chapter. I am not sure how graphic it comes across in my writing in the end, but I do want to say that it happens.
I'll talk more about future trigger warnings and everything in my endnotes, but please be aware of this moving into the chapter. Thank you, stay safe, and happy reading! I hope this chapter was worth the wait! :)
"Yaho, how goes it, y'all~?"
Several heads turned at the sudden chirp from the doorway. With a cheerful snicker, pro hero Marionna gave a casual wave at the rest of the staff members settled in the monitoring room. The one person who didn't even flinch at her entry, head continuously buried in paperwork, was Haruko, that workaholic.
The woman standing closest to the door was the first to turn her attention away from the monitors, and Mari felt a mild spike of irritation at the bright glare that followed her movement. As if the woman weren't already bright enough herself, with her platinum blond hair streaked with rainbow dye and that blinding smile lined with perfect teeth, she had to be a whole diva and a half and flash the lights around her with it as well. Marionna scowled and rubbed at her eyes, resisting the urge to punch her coworker in the face.
"Ara, if it isn't Mari-chan," Pro hero Neon commented airily. "Aren't you supposed to be on the field?"
"Myeh," Mari shrugged. "It's too early, as if I'd let the boss battle take place anytime except phase three. Don't you have any sense of drama?"
Neon raised a slow eyebrow, and Mari had to bite back a smirk at the dead silence that followed the statement. The silence was broken ten seconds later with Hijiri's loud bark of laughter, and Mari reached over to give him a high-five before Haruko gave them a stern glare to break them apart.
Honestly, her senpai was such a killjoy, it was a wonder why she looked up to her so much.
"Anyway, how are the little shitheads doing so far?" Mari moved next to Neon and leaned closer to the monitors.
"Don't call your future students 'little shitheads,'" Neon scolded.
"I'll call them whatever I want, thank you—damn, did you turn down the wind speed already?"
"It was turning out to be too much of a hazard, so yes," Haruko answered succinctly.
Mari clicked her tongue. "Tch, amateurs—whoa, who's that punk?! Look at him posing like an idiot—where does all that baseless confidence come from?! He sucks!"
"Mari!"
Unperturbed, Mari watched with unmasked glee as the student in question smirked slightly before reaching next to him and, with a flashy show of Quirk usage, threw out his hands and forcibly levitated the one-pointer he was up against. As it floated in the air, he then commanded several large tree branches to strike against it in an attempted one-shot KO. Without giving it much thought, Mari snapped her fingers and the one-point enemy immediately turned into a three-pointer on the spot—a three-point creature that was at least two meters taller than it had been previously and packed with large, ominous limbs that had the branches immediately snapping harmlessly upon contact. The student froze in place for a moment, stunned, but then in the next moment took off running with a shriek of surprise as the creature lashed out in an attack, crushing five trees in one hit.
"Is that all? Have some goddamn finesse, will you?! If this is the level we have to work with then I'm gonna rage quit!"
"Mari," Haruko said in warning. "Stop breaking the rules."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, killjoy," Mari scoffed, but her irritation was immediately killed when something else on screen caught her eye. "Oh oh, who's that?! I like that kid, she's got hella spark. Can she be in my class?! Her team sucks though, cut the rest of them. You can do that, right? Of course you can, Miss Headmistress, please and thank you."
Haruko really needed to stop looking at her like that, it was getting old really fast.
Mari's attention was quickly drawn away at another piercing sound from the other side of the room, and she wrinkled her nose at the sight of the unfamiliar man sitting in front of the other set of monitors that must have been for the whole secret agent shebang or whatever it was Haruko had informed her about previously. It hadn't seemed to have anything to do with her, so she'd admittedly tuned half of it out, whatever. Still, she made her way over there curiously.
"Gosh it's loud in here—is someone getting murdered? Why is there so much damn screaming in here? Is that you? You don't look like you're getting murdered, what a shame."
Without even batting an eye at her, the silver-haired man answered flippantly, "Don't worry about that, I'm already dead on the inside. Med school does that to a person."
Mari barked out a laugh. "I don't know you, but I'm adopting you. What a fucking. Mood."
"I'm older than you, but all right." The man paused in his writing to hold out a hand. "Kusanagi Ayu. It seems we'll be working together, so I'll be in your care."
"Whatever, I don't care for introductions, you already know who I am anyway. You can just call me Mari," Mari answered flippantly. When he returned his gaze to the monitor, she followed it curiously. "So the fuck is happening here?"
"Well," Ayu paused for a moment, and Mari couldn't tell if it was for dramatic effect or if he really just needed to finish writing down whatever it was he was recording or both. Finally, he looked up and smiled mysteriously. "This is where things really start to happen."
"…why are you smiling at me like that."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"I can feel you psycho-analyzing me, stop it—I take it back, I'm unadopting—disowning, I'm disowning you—"
Are all girls like this? Mahou Sagi thought skeptically as he watched Sekoia and Nozomi continue to ooze hostility towards one another despite not talking. It was almost suffocating in the narrow corridor they were navigating, but Sagi figured that it was better than them actually going at one another's throats on the spot. Well, at least they know how to prioritize.
"Why are you so slow?" Sekoia complained in a fairly chipper tone from behind him, even though her words were anything but nice. "There's nothing going on, so hurry up, slow poke!"
"It's called being cautious," Nozomi muttered. "You never know what might appear from around these corners."
"That only applies to you because you're weak," Sekoia scoffed.
…okay, so maybe he spoke too soon.
"I can speed up a little," Sagi compromised.
Sekoia stared at him for a moment, her smile dipping slightly, and then huffed, "You know, I don't like your type. You're really annoying."
Oh, well that was new.
Still, whatever reaction Sekoia had been hoping to get out of him at that, Sagi was pretty sure he didn't give it to her, remaining completely unfazed by the declaration. Sekoia turned away with a small "hmph," clearly dissatisfied, but before she could keep talking—
CRASH!
Sagi leaped back on instinct when the wall in front of them was blown apart. Nozomi yelped when he nearly rammed right into her, as the corridor was too narrow to allow the three of them to walk side by side (they could squish if they really wanted to, but as expected, the two girls really did not, even with the lack of free movement it would have resulted in). Several strands of thick wire ropes lashed out at them from the darkness.
Sekoia retaliated first, briskly unhooking a canister from her belt and spraying it over the sprout on her head. Immediately, the sprout perked up and then flew outward in another vine attack similar to her previous one, smacking or tossing aside any falling debris before swiftly winding themselves around the incoming ropes tightly. It was only after they stopped moving that Sagi noticed the thorns embedded all over them, moments before said thorns ripped into the ropes mercilessly, effectively tearing the metal to pieces.
She's strong, Sagi noted to himself, watching Sekoia as she slid a tongue over her lips in concentration and directed her vines towards the unknown assailant in the dark, possibly hoping to drag them out by force. But that spray she's using… He glanced towards where the canisters hung at her waist, only to find them strategically devoid of any labels. Is that the only thing that allows her Quirk activation? Is that just for right now, because it's a plant-based Quirk and there's no sunlight, or is it always…? Either way, it might become a point of concern if she runs out before the exam ends…
And as for Nozomi…Sagi honestly had absolutely no clues as to her Quirk or her fighting abilities, only that she was somewhat capable of both but neither were particularly effective against robots.
The speculations barely took him two seconds, and he turned back around just in time to see a flame burst to life in the darkness. Sekoia gave a shout of surprise before withdrawing her vines, which were now burning from the end. She wrapped the vines together into one thick tendril, creating a bigger fire now that all the small ones had been combined, and right before the flames reached her head, the giant coagulation of the thorn vines suddenly dropped to the floor. They shriveled and dried the moment they were cut, which were immediately engulfed by the flames. Sekoia's frown deepened as the plant on her head bounced back into a simple sprout, looking at the flames with a clearly upset expression.
Understandable that she'd be weak to fire, with a plant Quirk, Sagi conceded.
A robot came out from the dark, as expected—but it wasn't just any robot, it was ginormous. It stood at the full height of the corridor, covered with a black armor of some kind that did not look easy to pierce through, and no matter how hard he looked, Sagi couldn't find the source of the previous flames. That meant that it came from a mechanism inside the giant robot, and who knew how many more mechanisms it was hiding in there…
"We have to proceed carefully," He cautioned.
He should have known that wasn't going to work.
The words had barely even left his mouth when another spritzing sound echoed in the corridor, and then a flurry of thick brown roots spanned the corridor in front of them. They broke through the walls of the corridor on their march forward, and one particularly thick root aimed straight for the robot, splitting into several pieces right in front of it to form a root cage, effectively stopping it in its tracks. More roots began to tear at the robot's limbs, and although some loose pieces went flying, a majority of it remained unaffected—particularly the areas covered by whatever the metal plate was, which was probably all of the important parts.
"I'm going in," Sagi said suddenly, moving forward as he did. Since Sekoia's Quirk wasn't working, he figured it was time for him to step in, and close combat was his best suit. And he also wanted to see what the metal plate was made of, to see if he could use it.
"No! Don't move—"
Sekoia's warning call came too late, as Sagi had already easily made his way above, under, or around the roots as was necessary.
He didn't think too much about her statement at first, considering her whole 'teamwork is overrated' claim earlier, but then there was motion from behind him. But then, from the corner of his eye, he could see another root attack shooting straight at him, without slowing down in the slightest and completely capable of crushing him with how big it was. It was instinct that allowed him to barely turn around on time, hand outstretched to defend himself.
The root came down primarily on his hand, and he felt something in his wrist crack at the pressure. But in the next second, before it could crush his body with it, it was gone. A chunk of the root had been hollowed out exactly where he stood. The small chunk behind him dropped to the floor, dead, and he had used the previous contact to push himself downwards and allow himself to duck under the remainder of the root.
Then, feeling his Quirk activate, his entire right arm transformed into a giant root exactly like that of Sekoia's, swiftly forming a large spider-web-like barrier in front of him that parried all of the other incoming roots. Figuring the roots could stretch for quite a distance, given Sekoia's attacks, Sagi landed on the giant robot that was still caged by Sekoia's roots with a single leap.
The robot was already sparking dangerously, and if he didn't act quickly, it wouldn't be long before it was at a level where it could quickly electrocute him. Not wasting any more time, Sagi pressed his normal left hand down against the black metal plate, swiftly absorbing a large chunk and wincing at the electricity that burned his hand at the integration. He smoothly shaped his left arm, now made of the exact same metal he'd absorbed, into a spear point and stabbed straight down. The metal pierced easily, with the robot having had a large chunk of its protective armor stolen, and once Sagi felt it penetrate, he reshaped the form of his arm to strike outward in many locations as possible. Several sharp tips of metal spikes could be seen protruding just barely outside the robot in various places, and he could feel several wires and devices being ripped to pieces. He pulled his arm back into a smaller but bulkier shape, one that was shaped somewhat like an arm again, and leaped back off of the robot only seconds before it exploded on itself.
Sekoia had stopped attacking, he noted, her sprout back to its miniature form on her head. He shrank the size of his root-formed arm and ejected the raw material back out, wincing slightly as the pain of his broken wrist came back to him. The root chunk dropped to the floor with a soft thud, where it immediately shriveled up.
Mahou Sagi!
Quirk: "Integration!" This ability allows the user to absorb any tangible matters and then take on its properties! He can have up to a total of 5 materials making up his body, and they don't have to be equally distributed! However, by absorbing a particular material, he takes on all of that substance's strengths and weaknesses as well!
Sfzzz.
Slap!
Sagi didn't even have time to react before something smacked him right across the face, nearly sending him flying across the hallway. But something else wrapped around his ankle and yanked him harshly through the air, and he didn't think twice before transferring some of the metal from his arm to his leg to slice off the offending object using a sharp edge. He dropped to the floor, returning his leg back to normal and shifting his arm back into a metal blade for offense, right in front of a very pissed off Sekoia.
"How. Fucking. Dare. You."
Sekoia had appeared fairly displeased from the moment Sagi had met her, but even then, she'd retained a rather cheerful and careless disposition throughout, even if it might have come off as obnoxious to some others. But regardless, there was no comparing that to the current fury burning in her eyes, one that told Sagi he had done something very unacceptable.
"Who do you think you are to just rip my precious plants from me, use them against me when they're made of the same cells, and then discard them like trash the moment you don't need them?" Sekoia seethed. "Have you no fucking respect for nature? Even if it weren't me, you can't just destroy a plant like that, Quirk or not! It's not the same even if you reproduce it or whatever shit it is that you do—nature is grown with love and care and you don't get to fucking trample all over that, you hear me? Much less tear out a chunk of something that is growing from my garden—I should tear one from you as payback and feed it to my plants to make up for what you stole."
Oh, Sagi realized, she hadn't been afraid of the fire earlier. She'd been sad to have to cut off her own plant.
He'd underestimated the extent of Fujimori Sekoia's passion, it seemed.
"I'm sorry," Sagi bowed. "I know this won't make up for it, but I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that I'd hurt you so much. But now that I am, I won't do it again, I promise. And when we finish the exam, I'd be happy to listen to hear more about nature and how to protect it, if you'd be willing, so that I can be more careful next time too."
That might have sounded like too much, and Sekoia clearly thought so too given her skeptical look, but Sagi was really completely genuine in his apology. It really was fascinating to listen to people talk about their hobbies, and Sagi did want to be able to uphold his promise to not offend her again next time he used his Quirk if necessary.
Despite her skepticism, the fire in Sekoia's green eyes had diminished slightly at his words. Sagi gave her his most convincing look, and she tossed her head before pushing around him. Her tone, although still laced with irritation, was a much brighter tone as she said, "That's not good enough, but whatever. Let's just keep going."
"So why did you attack Mahou?" Nozomi spoke up then. Sagi had almost forgotten she was there with how quiet she'd been, but he was relieved that she had seemed to understand the importance of that conversation as well and had chosen not to interrupt.
"It's not my fault. I certainly didn't expect him to jump right in my line of fire," Sekoia huffed. "Plants can't tell the difference between enemies and…not enemies."
"…allies, you mean."
"I meant what I said."
Sagi smiled wryly to himself as the two girls returned to something akin to banter, even if they wouldn't acknowledge it. As he moved to follow them, he ejected the metal piece from his arm as a small marble, tucking it carefully in his pocket.
This could be helpful later.
There couldn't have been a better place for them to have been moved to. Just hearing the sound of the gently trickling water made Shokushu Kishi breathe out her first relaxed breath since the exam had started.
But she barely even had time to take in the unexpectedly scenic river in front of her before there was a loud splash and a tsunami of water was pouring all over her and her teammates. The water wasn't the only thing pulling them into the water, however, as she felt something wrap around her ankles and yank harshly.
Kishi wasn't sure what would have happened if the group to be captured had been anyone else—would they have drowned? The river was certainly deeper than she had expected, but she really hoped that wasn't the case. Either way, unfortunately for their attacker, the water was her domain.
Her teal eyes snapped open, completely immune to the sting of the surrounding water. Confirming the location of all of her teammates with a single glance, she flung her arms outward, feeling the natural transition of her human limbs into long, orange tendrils. She scooped them all up by carefully looping the tendrils around their waists. At the same time, the tentacles on her head expanded outward and curled around the long leaves of seaweed wrapped around their ankles. Kishi frowned when the seaweed refused to budge despite the relatively harsh tug applied, not wanting to injure her teammates but also not wanting to keep them underwater any longer when they were clearly all starting to struggle with holding their breath.
She eyed the giant seaweed monster settled comfortably on the riverbed. It stood several feet taller than her, shaped like a giant ball of tumbleweed and with only shallow holes for eyes, and it was slowly using the seaweed lassos to draw them in further. She used her tentacle to tug in the other direction as well but still to no avail. Just as she was debating whether she should simply dive in and untie them herself, unsure if that would work either, she felt a light but insistent tap against her right arm.
She turned to look at the boy who had introduced himself as Kazaru Takumi, who was making an obvious show of resisting her hold while being slightly squished up against Riku. Without hesitation, she released the hold she had on him and looped more firmly around Riku's waist instead, watching to make sure that Takumi didn't sink. As she did, she could feel her tentacles moving by themselves to counteract the new lashes of seaweed striking at them, but she could only let them move by themselves as she watched her teammate in a slightly disturbed disbelief.
Takumi had been a strange kid by appearance alone, with a face almost entirely devoid of any features: there were shallow dents in his skin where his eyes should have been but no actual eyeballs, he had an obvious lack of hair and a nose but possessed thin lips and sharp teeth curved into an eerie smile, and many of his features almost appeared to be elongated, including his ears, fingers, and body figure entirely. Riku had whispered absently that the boy almost looked like Slenderman, but Kishi hadn't paid it much attention. As someone with tentacle hair, she knew better than to judge someone by their Quirk-induced appearance, and it was hardly as if the boy's features were the strangest thing she'd ever seen. No one would ever top the middle school classmate that had had an actual manga-style speech bubble for a head.
But even his unusual appearance couldn't have prepared Kishi for the moment he put his Quirk in action—she winced and immediately looked away at the sight of Takumi unhesitatingly crushing his own fingers with his other hand. She glanced back in the next moment, however, quickly extending her tendril again and looping the tip cautiously around his chest to avoid him being dragged any closer to the seaweed monster. With an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, she watched as he carefully molded his hand as if it were clay and produced a grotesque product of a bone, blood, and muscle patchwork. She released him again to allow him to bend over to swiftly slice off the restraint around his own legs and around Riku's beside him using the sharp white parts around his fingers (that she assumed were bone).
He then gestured forward, and Kishi wasted no time in grabbing Riku's arm with a tentacle from her hair and carrying her teammate through the water to let him easily slice through the rest of their restraints with one slice. The moment the restraint around Mako's leg was released, she extended her tendrils above water to drop her teammates off on shore lightly.
The moment she knew her teammates were safe, she stopped resisting the rest of her transformation.
Shokushu Kishi!
Quirk: "Kraken!" This ability allows her to change parts or all of her body into that of a giant squid upon coming into contact with water! The more water around her, the larger her form becomes! With enough water, she can even take on the form of the legendary Kraken from the myths! She's super strong in water!
Feeling much more comfortable in the form of an orange giant squid, Kishi rocketed through the water, dodging the seaweed monster's attacks with a newfound ease and expanding her own tentacles to pierce through the monster's body. It barely took her a minute to mercilessly rip into the monster, dissolving it into a burst of purple orbs that disappeared moments after.
Satisfied, Kishi checked to make sure that there were no more underwater enemies before pushing her way back to the surface. When the head of her mantle first broke through the surface, she could vaguely hear shouts of surprise followed by Riku's hurried reassurances. She transformed back as she left the water, fixing her bandana back around her wiggling tentacles carefully.
She shivered when another gust of wind blew harshly against her wet skin and hoped she wouldn't get sick; she didn't have time to get sick.
"…Sh-Shokushu-san?!" Mako exclaimed in surprise. "That was you?!"
"Yeah," Kishi smiled. "Is everyone okay? Nobody swallowed water, right?"
"No, we're all fine, thanks to you," Riku answered.
"I couldn't have done it without Kazaru though," Kishi corrected. "Kazaru-kun, is your hand okay?"
Takumi gave the impression of blinking without actually having the eyelids to do so, and then he gave her a shark-toothed smile that looked as if it could have come straight out of a horror movie. "Absolutely. Happy to help, although it seems like you had it covered."
He gave her a casual salute with his deformed hand, still dripping blood across the rocks every other second. While her other three teammates could only stare at him with clear discomfort painting their features, Kishi simply returned his action with another grateful smile and nod.
"We should move on," Takumi said without addressing the rest of them, although he did give them what Kishi interpreted to be a rather impassive look, with the smile no longer present. Not waiting for a response, he moved forward determinedly.
Riku fell in step next to Kishi as the rest of them followed. "Thanks, Kishi, really. I don't know what I'd do without you here."
Kishi could only smile at her childhood friend reassuringly. Truthfully, she really didn't want to be here, but…
"I promised I'd always support you however I could, right?"
Hijiri whistled. "Not bad."
"Myeh, she's got tentacle powers, she has to be at least a little OP to qualify for anything."
Neon shot her a pained look. "And you wonder why people never ask you for your opinions—Mari, please never let her hear you say that."
Mari huffed. "Obviously, I have some tact, you know?"
Hijiri snorted at that, and even Haruko lifted her head questioningly. Mari just rolled her eyes, careless as ever.
"I just don't care enough to use it most of the time."
Well, all right, fair. If she hadn't had any tact at all like people thought, there's no doubt that she would've been burned alive by the media before her hero career even started.
"Hm~ Still, these kids are impressive," Neon commented as she returned her gaze to the monitors. "I'm pretty sure I didn't have this much control during my entrance exam."
Hijiri had been fully expecting a scathing remark of "Hah! You call this control? These little shits are just flinging their Quirks around as they want—just you wait until I teach them what real control looks like" from Mari, so the silence was rather unnerving. When he looked over at her, he was surprised to find her watching one of the monitors in complete silence.
Seeing which screen caught her eye, however, he wasn't surprised.
Even putting aside their clear individual strengths, there was something else about them that had caught both his and Haruko's eyes. Although the team had clearly had their disputes, they also functioned strangely coherently as a team when it came down to it. That was extremely rare for people who were meeting for the first time, and even more so for first-time combat students during an exam.
As they watched, a black-haired boy and silver-haired girl latched onto the roots of the giant plant monstrosity they were fighting when it tried to propel itself into the air to put some distance between its attackers. Clearly excited, Mari twirled a finger absently before anyone could tell her otherwise, and another vine on the monster twisted into existence before lashing out at the silver-haired girl. The boy next to her was seen yelling out a word of warning moments before the attack formed, but it appeared to be too late—until the vine attack passed directly through the girl harmlessly, as if she were nothing but an illusion. Her expression remained completely impassive but she gave the boy a short nod of thanks.
Hijiri whistled again. It almost seemed like a permeation Quirk…didn't one of the kids at UA have a Quirk like that? But this one doesn't seem to be that simple—something about her clearly changed when that happened…
He filed the thought away after resolving to search up the girl's profile later.
When Mari started directing more complicated vine attacks, the navy-haired girl on the team wasted no time in moving forward, launching into the air and encapsulating the plant monster in a giant blast of flames. The vine attacks stopped as they started to burn, and the pink-haired boy backed off to avoid the sparks flying around him.
"They'll get points off if that becomes a fire hazard," Hijiri mused to himself, eyeing their grassy surroundings skeptically.
Right as the words left his mouth, he spotted movement off to the side. Standing at the border of the forestry and the rock landscape not too far away, a pink-haired boy hefted a giant boulder over his head with ease. The boulder was easily twice the size of him and shouldn't have been something any human could lift, but Hijiri could easily assume from the markings across his skin that the kid's Quirk had something to do with strength enhancement. Then, with perfect aim, he pitched it through the air like a shot put.
The same time the boulder flew towards the burning plant monster, a pink blur catapulted out of a nearby tree top at the same time, matching the landing timing almost perfectly. Upon hitting the grass, the ground caved visibly under her touch and then the flaming villain point was suddenly rocketing through the air instead. It flew in a perfect arc, covering almost twenty feet before dropping directly over the cliffside and into the roaring waterfall, dousing the flames instantly. The villain point burst into a shower of purple orbs, and the girl cheered loudly.
"She made that look easy," Neon commented from over Hijiri's shoulder.
She did, Hijiri agreed, but adjusting the elasticity so that you perfectly project what you want at such a calculated trajectory definitely requires a certain level of technique.
He snickered upon seeing the fire girl's lips form the words 'that was a highly unnecessary amount of work for three points,' to which the trampoline girl pouted and responded 'but it was fun! I mean, we probably get teamwork points for that too, which is cool! Thanks for going along with it anyway, Aozaki-san!'
"Not. Fucking. Bad, you little shits! Looks like I get to have some fun after all!"
They all startled at the gleeful exclamation. Haruko's head snapped up as Mari stormed across the room, alarm painted all over her features. "Wait, Mari—"
The door slammed shut.
Haruko groaned. "Why did we hire her again."
"We didn't hire her, she hired herself," Hijiri laughed. "You know how she is."
Haruko rested her head in her hands for a few long seconds before letting out a heavy sigh and picking her pen back up again to resume her speculations.
"It should be fine, there's only like two minutes until we switch to phase three anyway, let her be."
Haruko didn't respond, so Hijiri made his way across the room instead. "And how's it going for you?" He asked, dropping next to the man on the other side of the room, still monitoring the Silver Class monitors silently.
"Hm…well, I will say that you definitely have a good eye for these things," Ayu responded, tapping his pen against his clipboard lightly. He stilled suddenly and pointed, "Oh, right, I was wondering, is this kid who I think it is?"
"If you mean who I think you do, and that is the kid that Hijiri adopted without my permission, then yes, it is."
"Oh, come on, how long are you going to hold that against me—"
"For as long as it works, and that's probably the rest of your life because you actually have a guilty conscience no matter how hard you try to pretend otherwise."
Hijiri hated his sister sometimes.
(To the part of his brain saying 'no you don't, you could never' in that snobbish tone that sounded vaguely like her, shut up.)
Ayu chuckled at their familiar antics, breaking off the argument before it could escalate. "I see."
"Is he different from what you expected?" Hijiri asked curiously.
"No…on the contrary, he's pretty much exactly how I expected, and that's even more unfortunate. It seems like he's going to have a rough time here…"
"But you'll help him, right?"
"Of course, I'll do everything I can, to the best of my abilities. That's why I'm here after all. …ahhh, but as much as it pains me to watch, the current situation is out of my hands."
Hijiri glanced at the monitor in question and winced.
Oh boy.
Mitsuki's fingers twitched helplessly.
He…he should be helping, right? He didn't know how well his reflexes would work in such a large scale battle, but…but he should've been doing something. He couldn't just stand there and watch as all his teammates did all the work, that would…that just—no. But then…what could he do? He didn't know how to fight against robots, or really fight at all technically, and his Quirk…
Well.
He scrapped that thought as quickly as it came.
BOOM!
Mitsuki flinched at the sudden explosion, his head whipping up to make sure that his teammates were okay. Thankfully, they were, both having been backed up so that they were barely in front of him and just out of reach of the sparking flames slowly eating its way through the digital corridor wall. Smoke filled the hallway, although thankfully nowhere near them (yet). Mitsuki felt a flicker of hope that any remaining robots had been destroyed in the explosion, but the glowing red lights piercing through the fumes followed by the clattering sound of wheels sent that hope sinking into his stomach immediately.
"Fucking hell, there's no end to this—" Hisoka swore loudly. "Fuck, I can't even see anything—where the fuck were you aiming? You blind or something?"
Tooka rolled her eyes. In a swift movement, she swept her hand out, throwing out another wave of black liquid to encapsulate the entire front row of robots charging at them. She made an exploding gesture with her hand and the liquid exploded upward in sync with it, spiking into sharp points and sticking out from the machines at all angles. A second wave of her hand saw to them all being hoisted outwards, where they exploded above the accompanying robots coming up behind them. "Oh suck it up, cupcake. You complain too much—"
"The place was small enough to begin with—now I can't see for shit. We had enough trouble getting through the hallway with the shitty ant swarm, and you just had to add a whole ass flame wall to the mix and destroy half the damn pathway, not to mention the fucking deadweight behind us—"
"Don't—"
A rumbling noise cut them both off.
Mitsuki swallowed thickly at the sight of the giant silhouette appearing through the smoke, a single piercing red glare informing them of its identity as it loomed over the narrow corridor ominously. When it entered the dim glow of the flames hanging off the wall, Mitsuki could see that it spanned the entire size of the corridor perfectly, rectangular sides only a few inches away from the walls and ceiling, rolling across the floor with giant wheels and a giant shovel in the front similar to that of a snow plow. The shovel scooped along the floor noisily, pushing all of the tattered robot pieces and debris to the side easily, where the wall opened up readily to swallow it before closing a second later.
With another crunch of metal, Hisoka rocketed forward, still enshrouded in a faint red aura and with his fist drawn back. As he neared the robot, however, he noticed the black coating covering the originally metallic outing. Remembering what had happened previously, he narrowed his eyes and gathered more energy in his fist—
Kachik.
The side of the robot opened up, and he suddenly found himself headed straight for the barrel of a machine gun.
"Fuck—"
Blam blam blam blam—
With no chance to react, Mitsuki and Tooka could only watch in alarm as the boy was bombarded with a rain of bullets and dropped out of the air instantly, disappearing into the smoke.
"What the fuck, they call this an entrance exam?" Tooka snapped.
Mitsuki let out a terrified squeak, hiding his face in his trembling hands as he carefully inhaled to keep his breathing steady and—he stopped. "I…don't smell blood though…"
The whisper had barely left his mouth when another slot opened on the robot's side as the machine gun was retracted and a giant mallet head appeared—where had they been keeping that thing—slamming towards the ground right where Hisoka had fallen.
A loud cracking noise rang out.
Tooka's blacksilver faltered from where it was halfway there.
There was a brief flare of red followed by another cracking noise before the giant mallet head caved in on itself from the bottom. It quivered and ultimately lost the battle of strength as Hisoka pushed himself to his feet, crushing the giant metal mallet above him as if it were paper with one hand. Small drops of silver dropped from his body as he stood—Mitsuki couldn't quite see what they were, but they almost seemed to be melted metal of some kind.
"Are those…BB bullets?" Tooka muttered.
What? Mitsuki thought faintly, but there was no time to focus on that.
Hisoka snarled and yanked down on the mallet, ripping the head straight off of the handle and crushing it into a ball of metal about the size of a bowling ball. Then, with bludgeoning force, he pitched it at the giant robot's head.
CLONK.
The metal projectile barely even left a dent on the robot's black armor plate.
As if he had expected that, Hisoka lunged forward, his body still encased with a red glow, and smashed his fist directly into the robot's leg—piercing straight through the metal and intricate wiring alike. A hard yank outward ripped the metal slab on the side free entirely, causing the robot to tilt precariously before it sprouted another metal pipe from the side to help keep its balance.
Right as Hisoka moved to fully topple it, possibly by taking out its entire leg with an enhanced punch, there was a clicking noise behind him.
Out of the darkness, there had suddenly appeared a new wave of pint-sized robots all with similar armor platings—and each with a gun propped up and pointed at him. Neither Mitsuki or Tooka had seen them approach, and there was no time to react before the gunfire opened up again. Hisoka clicked his tongue and increased the density of the aura surrounding him—
Black liquid burst into existence around him, deflecting the incoming BB bullets with a density that should not have been possible.
Hisoka glared at Tooka so harshly that Mitsuki instinctively ducked behind her to hide from it. "I didn't fucking ask—"
WHAM.
Mitsuki winced, hiding his head in his hands at the sudden impact. The giant robot had suddenly opened another metal slab on its stomach and produced a large metal shield, which it then rammed unhesitatingly against Hisoka's body.
Hisoka flew the distance between them, but when he slid to his feet next to them, he was entirely unharmed, with the red aura surrounding him a deep crimson and his footprints clearly imprinted in the floor.
He only gave Tooka another scathing look as he finished, "I didn't fucking ask for your help. As if something of that level could affect me—I had it covered."
Ketsu Hisoka!
Quirk: "Tactikinesis!" This ability allows the user to emit a durable psionic field just a few molecules above the body that allows them to manipulate whatever it touches, including the person themself! They can manipulate their own body to give them an increase in their physical conditions, and it also acts as a full body shield against physical attacks!
Tooka rolled her eyes, recalling her blacksilver with an absent wave of her hand. "I would say that a thank you would do too, if I didn't think it might actually kill you."
A flash of anger was seen in Hisoka's green eyes, but he only grunted and relented, "That armor is really annoying though, the fuck is that? That strike should've pulverized it on the spot."
"I've been trying to pry it off too, but it's not budging," Tooka agreed, and when Mitsuki peered around her curiously, he could barely make out the shape of black droplets seeping out from the top of one of the smaller robots. "We might just have to blow them up again."
"And you know that would work how?" Hisoka challenged.
"If I shove enough blacksilver through the gaps, then I can blow it up from the inside," Tooka said confidently.
But then the explosion would be huge, Mitsuki thought to himself nervously, not having missed the way Tooka's Quirk reacted to fire.
"Are you trying to fucking murder us all?" Hisoka snapped, clearly having come to the same conclusion.
"I was kidding—"
She was interrupted by another round of gunshots. Hisoka activated his Quirk in a flash, letting the bullets pelt and melt harmlessly against him, while Tooka threw up another shield of blacksilver to defend both herself and Mitsuki.
Tooka's onyx eyes darted around her and then at Mitsuki briefly, before she set her mouth and lunged out from inside her shield determinedly. Mitsuki let out a noise of protest as she exposed herself to the gunfire while throwing out another stream of blacksilver, a confident glint to her eye.
The onslaught stopped, and Mitsuki peeked around the liquid shield curiously. Tooka's blacksilver had pushed its way into the barrel of each of the firing guns, and in the next instant, spikes formed in all directions from the inside. With a flick of Tooka's wrist, the blacksilver, now in the shape of pointy ninja stars, ripped through the guns forcefully, demolishing them.
Mitsuki watched, fascinated, as Tooka gathered all of her released blacksilver into one giant silver blob and meticulously shaped it into something akin to that of a javelin. She pulled her arm back to fire, clearly aiming for the biggest obstacle in the back—
Thud.
The floor beneath them shook, causing her to stumble. Taking advantage of the opening, one of the smaller robots fired a giant clamp that wrapped around her wrist and yanked her forward. Tooka wasted no time in snapping her javelin in half and using the half to slice off the restraint in one stroke. The moment her feet touched the floor again, she shoved herself backwards, narrowly avoiding a strike from the second giant metal mallet that the big robot was flinging around.
The strike against the floor induced another corridor-wide tremor.
Meanwhile, one of the robots had come charging at Hisoka, but it was promptly demolished with a single enhanced punch. Hisoka then tossed the wreckage at another incoming robot in what seemed to be a casual motion but ended up wiping the other robot out entirely as well.
A vindictive smirk on his face, he launched himself into the army of robots with no hesitation, tearing them apart with brute force alone.
Mitsuki clenched his fist so tightly that blood dripped from his hands. Help…he had to help…but what could he do? Especially when his teammates were so powerful…what could he do? Nothing, there was nothing, he was utterly useless—
The giant robot in the back slammed another mallet head into the wall. All of the surfaces broke out into another series of violent tremors, and Tooka cursed as she was pummeled by an attacking robot upon being thrown off balance at the sudden vibration. She threw up a wall of blacksilver to defend herself as she regained her balance, and a second later, expanded it to capture a second robot that had tried to run past her straight towards Mitsuki. She gave him a reassuring glance over her shoulder, but that only sent a new wave of guilt through the terrified boy.
I…I have to help—
Another rattling of the floor nearly sent him toppling over, and he caught himself on the wall behind him.
A familiar stimulation spread through his veins, sparking at his fingers—
He threw himself off immediately, panic building in his chest. He glanced down at his hand and then at the wall, and realization dawned on him in the next moment.
Oh.
He…he could use that, right? He…he'd be careful not to hurt anyone, so just once…to help his teammates…
He glanced behind him again, seeing both of his teammates fight with such vigor and the robot in the back preparing for another disorienting strike, and let desperation take over.
The moment his hand came in contact with the wall, the sparking feeling in his fingertips was back, and the digitized surfaces all crackled with electricity, traveling along the circuits outward and—
BOOM!
A single explosion ripped through the floor, exactly where the giant robot was standing, immediately rupturing through the robot's protective plating and delicate wiring from the inside, as no one would have bothered to protect the bottom. A second explosion followed, originating from the giant robot itself as it exploded in on itself.
It…It worked…It worked! And no one got hurt—
There was another crackle of electricity along the wall to their left, and the image of Aina appeared on the wall. Mitsuki heard her panicked "STOP, you can't—" and flinched, fear filling his veins at the realization that oh no, he was wrong again—he could never do anything right, could he, he only ever fucked things up and this was just another one of them—
Stop, he thought desperately, this is wrong, I need to stop—
The electrical currents under his fingertips obeyed, and with a loud pop, everything went black.
The lights in the room flickered, as did the monitors. Several of them cut out entirely, and the lights followed shortly after.
Haruko shot to her feet in alarm. "Aina—"
The screens flickered and a large projection of the AI cut in intermittently. "—sorry, I'm tr—g to fix—minutes—"
The fact that Aina's control was being disrupted meant that it wasn't a normal blackout—and in that case, there was only one other reason it could be…
She whirled around to look towards where Hijiri should have been seated next to Ayu, who she could barely hear murmuring, "Oh dear, lots of trauma and anxiety there…not a good mix. It seems likely that he's going to work himself into a panic attack soon…"
She thought so.
Putting the kid's temperament aside, there was no denying the fact that his Quirk was…troublesome, to say the least. It had been one of the main reasons Haruko had been so concerned—
No. No, she had to stop thinking like that. What's done was done, and besides, Hijiri was right—saving these kids was the right thing to do.
She couldn't let what happened to him happen to anyone else.
Now, she just had to keep reminding herself that.
Finally, Aina's visual stabilized and the lights flickered back on. "Okay, I've regained control over the system as a whole, but I need some time to start things back up in the Simulation Joint. Some of the operation functions were blown up or corroded so I need to reroute some commands—this is a really bad time for this to happen though—Haruko-san, should we make an official announcement?"
"Yeah…we can't have people getting injured while the floor isn't level. We'll do damage control with the media later, so make an announcement now. The students' safety is our first priority."
"You can still access their locations and their vitals through the watches, right?" Hijiri interjected.
"Yes! I also have retained access to the emergency shut down and reset functions if they become necessary, and Akemi is on immediate standby!"
Haruko nodded. "Good. Then above all else, make sure the students are safe. All of them. We're counting on you, Aina."
"Aye aye! Leave it to me!"
"It…stopped?" Ayana looked up in confusion. The mist was still coating the air so heavily she couldn't even see her own fingers, but the rumbling of the floor had disappeared incredibly quickly compared to last time. "Was that supposed to happen?"
"I don't think so," Reiden answered in concern. "My dad said that the technology here was impeccable, so…something must be very wrong."
"Well whatever," Doki snarled. "We can move now, so we might as well hurry up and get some more points."
"Oi, we shouldn't get separated when we can't see anything—"
Right then, a crackling noise echoed through the dome.
"Attention all exam takers: we are currently undergoing some technical issues. Please remain calm as I restart system operations and we will resume the exam again shortly to ensure everyone's safety. No one is or will be in any danger during any point in this process. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for the delay."
"Technical difficulties?" Riri wrinkled her nose. "Now?"
"They should at least clear the mist so we can see…" Haru frowned.
"This is exactly what I was worried about," Hotaru muttered to herself.
"Technical difficulties," Sekoia scoffed. "Didn't they say something earlier about state of the art technology or whatnot? We're getting technical difficulties already? That's not helping their credibility now, is it?"
"…that aside, it's really dark in here," Sagi commented from somewhere to her left.
"Wow, I couldn't tell. Thanks for that."
"Well obviously, where do you think we are?"
They certainly work well together in situations like this, Sagi thought to himself in amusement but wisely kept his mouth shut.
This wasn't what he wanted. This wasn't what he wanted at all.
Stop. Stop it, stop it, undo it—
To his relief, he felt another familiar spark under his fingers, and he saw the light rising upward along the wall in a clear pattern of circuit lights. In the next moment, the lights flickered back on.
There was more, he thought, there was something else, I should fix that too—
"STOP IT!"
Mitsuki flinched so hard he nearly knocked his head against the wall. A buzz sounded, and Aina's projection reappeared on the wall, only slightly staticky this time.
"STOP TOUCHING IT!"
"I-I'm sorry!" Mitsuki's hands immediately flew over his head, away from the wall. He backed up but only flinched again when his back hit the wall. Don't touch, don't touch, don't touch. He curled up on the floor to prevent the urge to back up again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I was just…I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"
Aina, strangely, calmed down at that. "It—I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's all right, I'm fixing it. But please don't touch anything else while I'm fixing it!"
Then she was gone again.
There was a moment of silence, only filled with his heavy breathing, and then Mitsuki felt his breath hitch. Someone was standing over him.
Who was it what do they want why why why stop go away—
"Was that you?"
Away away away, stop looking, stop stop stop, just go away—
Wait, there was a question. Answer it. …what was it? Answer, he needed to answer it—what what was what who what was he asking again—
"I-I'm sorry, I—"
"That's not what I fucking asked—"
Oh, right, that—
"Yes, yes, it was, I'm sorry—"
"Why the fuck didn't you do that earlier then?"
Mitsuki flinched. His back touched the wall again, and upon feeling a shock, jerked upward. Don't touch it.
A sudden pain blossomed from the back of his head, and he inhaled what felt like his first breath in an eternity. Some semblance of clarity cleared the fog in his mind, and both his ability to hear and feel seemed to return to him at once, as he suddenly became aware of the angry words being yelled at him.
"Are you even trying? Do you even want to be here? Did you ever consider the fact that you're bothering us with your dead-weighting too? This is an exam, holding back isn't going to fucking help you."
Mitsuki swallowed harshly. "I—I'm not—"
"If you're not going to actually try, then why the fuck are you even in this program at all?"
I don't know.
His voice wasn't working. (His lungs weren't working either.)
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I shouldn't have come here at all. It's too dangerous. I'm not allowed. I can't. I should go back.
I shouldn't be here.
"What's your fucking problem?" Tooka snarled, shoving Hisoka back harshly so that he stumbled. She took the opportunity to put herself before the two boys, her hand clenched in a tight fist as she glared. "Can't you tell he's terrified? If he doesn't want to fight then leave him alone—it's not his fault you're so pathetic that you can't even hold your own against a bunch of ant-sized robots."
This jolted Mitsuki out of his self-deprecating thoughts, not wanting to get the other girl involved.
"N-No," He barely managed to get out, reaching out toward her in an attempt to get her to back off, but he was roughly shrugged off and he curled in on himself again, nervous. "Stop…"
Hisoka sneered. "And what's it to you? If he doesn't want to fight he shouldn't fucking be here—this isn't some wishy-washy freedom trip that just anyone can walk on. If he's not going to fight then he might as well go back and rot in that fucking hellhole because he's not doing anyone any good out here."
Mitsuki flinched again at the harsh statement.
"Well, if it were up to me, I certainly wouldn't have let you out of your cage because it's pretty obvious that you're just going to go right back to what you were doing before you got arrested with that attitude of yours," Tooka retorted.
"What did you say, you bitch?" Hisoka crossed the distance between him and Tooka in a flash, his face twisted in a burning fury. He clenched his fist tightly, his anger only flaring more when the girl only returned his look coldly, showing no signs of fear whatsoever. "Say that again and I'll bash your fucking face in, reform be damned. I dare you."
Stop, please, Mitsuki wanted to cry out, but his voice wasn't working properly. He swallowed harshly, feeling himself shaking uncontrollably, and scooted back as much as he could. His back hit the wall, and he squeezed his eyes shut in mild terror. Were they going to fight? Because of him? No, he didn't want that—he wasn't worth that—he wanted to beg them to stop, that it didn't matter, that they should move on, that he would try harder next time and it would all be okay. But his voice still refused to listen to him and he only choked on the dryness of his throat.
"Well, if you insist. I said you're a rabid animal who was let out of his cage way too early—"
The tension in the air was thickening, and his gold eyes widened when he saw Hisoka starting to lunge forward with an enhanced punch. No. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening—they couldn't be fighting because of him. It was all his fault—again—it was always his fault always always always—and—and. His thoughts spiralled wildly, and the air around him felt like it was getting thin. This was…not okay. Nothing about this was okay. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get out of here.
He pressed his hand desperately against the wall, feeling the familiar spark of his Quirk flaring to life once again, not thinking twice about it in his panic. Let me out, let me out of here, please, I don't want to be here anymore, please let me out—
He could feel the electrical currents realigning under his hands, and the light flickered briefly before the wall finally slid open. Without a single glance backward, his mind clouded with fear and desperation, Mitsuki took off running.
"Attention to all staff and students: the problem has been resolved, and we will now resume the exam. An official apology will be issued from the school after the exam has concluded, as we were unable to control the possibility of Quirk interference with our systems and its consequences well enough, but we would like to once again formally apologize to all of you personally once again for the interruption. We will work to ensure that this will not happen again in the future. Thank you, and best of luck to all applicants on the remainder of your exam!"
"Quirk interference? I wonder how that happened…" Riri tilted her head. This definitely hadn't been something anyone had expected, but well, these things happened.
Hotaru pursed her lips. "Regardless of what happened, I think this was too careless on their part, especially for their first entrance exam as a school."
"I mean, I'd like to assume they did all they could to prepare for the possibility, but in the end it's really impossible to fully control the effects of Quirk interference, especially with technology. As long as they learn and adjust accordingly in the future, it's fine, right? Everyone deserves a second chance!"
Hotaru looked unimpressed. "You seem like the type who'd give third and fourth and fifth chances as well."
"…weeeeeeell, you're not wrong about that," Riri admitted with a bright laugh, "but that doesn't mean that what I'm saying is wrong either, right?" She paused for a moment before commenting, "Still, they seemed really prepared at the orientation, so…I wonder what kind of Quirk it could've been to interfere with Ai-chan's control that badly. Curious, don't you think?"
"That's not important right now," Mikita interrupted. "The exam has resumed, so we should continue as well."
"We've been doing really well so far," Karma said reassuringly. "I think we might even have one of the highest point counts."
"Yeah, so is it really necessary to fight together so much now? We can probably start splitting up at this point, right?" Haru complained. "The shifts happened in ten minute intervals, so that should've been the last one. Meaning we're free to move around as we like now, so couldn't we just get points on our own now? It's more fun that way."
His proclamation was met with silence, with Hotaru and Mikita giving him cold, careless stares, while Karma had that same gentle smile he'd worn since the beginning. But the person he was primarily addressing clearly hadn't heard a single word he'd said, to his irritation.
"Oi, Riri, I'm talking to you—"
"I knew I didn't see that wrong!" Riri burst out all of a sudden, throwing her arms out in an excited flail. She accidentally smacked Hotaru in the face with the movement, to which she breathed out a rushed "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry, are you okay? I didn't hit your nose, did I? Oh thank god, sorry—" When Hotaru waved her off with a slight hint of annoyance, Riri returned to whatever had caught her attention—by pointing to the side aggressively, effectively stabbing her finger straight into Haru's forehead this time. Haru yelped and backed away from her as she released another string of apologies, rubbing at his forehead to relieve the pain.
"Riri-chan, calm down," Karma instructed patiently. "What is it?"
"Sorry, sorry," Riri breathed, clearly embarrassed. "Wow, I'm a mess, sorry, I just—over there, do you see that? Isn't that her?"
"Who?" Haru asked in confusion as they all turned to look where she was pointing.
Riri's finger faltered. "Hnngh, she was just there a few moments ago…did she—oh! There! That shadow! It's moving, see it?!"
"Yes," Mikita frowned, "what about it?"
"Don't you recognize that butterfly ribbon?!"
"Ribbon?"
"Yeah, it's her trademark! That has to be her—pro hero Marionna, the Puppet Master of the exam!"
Most of her teammates looked skeptical, and it was Karma who compromised, "Well, we can at least go check it out, right? See if it's really her."
"Fine, that shouldn't hurt," Hotaru agreed.
They began making their way forward, when suddenly—
BOOM!
Riri's head shot up at the sound of the explosion, although faint, and immediately spotted the pillar of smoke rising in the distance.
"What was that…? Explosions weren't mentioned in the orientation, right…?"
At this point, there was only one resounding thought in all of their minds:
What is going on with this exam?
What is going on with this kid?
Tooka blocked Hisoka's punch with a shield of blacksilver and then threw another wave between the closing walls by sheer instinct, spreading the metallic liquid across the floor and hardening it in an instant just before the walls slid shut again. Hisoka leaped over her from behind and landed on the walls much like Spiderman, grabbing the two walls in either hand and forcefully wrenching them open again. There was a loud crunching noise as the metal dented under his hands.
There was an unspoken temporary truce between the two of them as they both took off to follow their other teammate down the hallway.
She wasn't sure how she felt about all of this.
On one hand, Mitsuki obviously had some major trauma. She had no idea if it was from his time at the Institute or even before that, but he carried so much skittish energy that she was afraid he'd hurt himself more than he already had if he was left alone for too long. There was no way to fake trauma, especially not to that extent—she would know—so she still struggled to wrap her mind around the fact that a kid like that could commit a crime so great that he'd end up here of all places. Regardless of the why, she could probably already have argued that with his apparently harmless, frightful nature, he may have deserved this second chance more than anyone else currently in this class.
The fact that he bore a resemblance to her late baby brother only further stirred the protective instincts growing within her.
But on the other hand…as loathe as she was to admit it, she could understand where Hisoka was coming from as well. In regards to their team and this exam, Mitsuki was one hell of a wild card. She truthfully hadn't expected him to be able to contribute anything at all to the battle, and just as she'd thought that she was right—he went and overwrote the entirety of the school operations that they had been so confident in.
Depending on how they were being evaluated, having such a wild card in their team was dangerous.
This was their once in a lifetime chance. They couldn't let anything take it away from them.
She rounded the corner and released a breath of relief at the sight of the black-haired boy running ahead of them. He was faster than she'd expected, and he kept his left hand pressed lightly along the wall, so she assumed that it was his Quirk at work that caused the white walls of the labyrinth to part and form a direct path for him.
The wall in front of Mitsuki parted once more, but at the sight of a robot standing not too far behind it, they slammed shut again before it could attack. The wall on the right opened next, seemingly clear, but Tooka moved before he could duck into it, not wanting to lose sight of him again. She flung out a carefully formed whip of blacksilver to loop around the boy's arm, causing him to flinch harshly at the sudden contact. He whirled around to face her, but then his eyes widened, and he was leaping back in the next moment-seconds before the wall sparked and exploded. Thankfully, the flames appeared to be mild and rather controlled, though the black smoke tore through the hallway mercilessly. Still, Tooka was relieved that she was able to pull her Quirk back in time, reabsorbing the metallic liquid so that it wasn't exposed to any of the explosion.
Finally catching up with him, Tooka reached out to grab his wrist lightly. But regardless of her gentle touch, Mitsuki still recoiled anyway, a clear fear in his gold eyes. "No, stop, please, I need to get out of here, let me out of here—"
"What's his problem?" Hisoka muttered with a scowl.
What does it look like, he's obviously traumatized, Tooka thought but didn't say.
"Hey it's okay, calm down—"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please let me out, I shouldn't be here, let me out, let me go—"
It was by sheer protective instinct that Tooka moved to pat his head in hopes of calming him down a little (the way Obi liked it a voice whispered in her head). But every muscle in Mitsuki's body tensed, and she knew that she'd made the wrong move. With unexpected strength, Mitsuki smacked her hand away and wrenched his other wrist from her grasp before shoving her away so hard she fell backwards.
Hisoka snarled, making a grab for the boy before he could escape again, "Stop making this so fucking difficult—"
BOOM.
The moment Mitsuki's fingers brushed the wall again, another explosion tore through the opposite wall, forcing Hisoka to activate his Quirk to defend himself from any flying debris. Thankfully, the flames didn't reach quite so far from the wall to harm any of them, but it was still enough that even Tooka could feel the heat from where she was sitting.
Even then, the fact that he attacked them at all was strange. I wonder what he's seeing right now…
She stood up, ready to set off again in another chase—
The walls slammed shut.
"FUCK," Hisoka roared, kicking the wall in fury. "What the FUCK, why did we get saddled with that—"
There was a buzz, and the walls slid open again, Aina's projection buzzing to life next to it. "Sorry—"
Tooka didn't bother waiting before taking off down the hallway again. For a moment, she didn't even know if she was going the right way, but she assumed that Aina was leading her to where she needed to go as the labyrinth carved a perfect path for her. It felt like she was losing all sense of direction and she wanted to curse whoever built such a horrid place.
A shout of surprise sounded ahead of her as she rounded another corner just in time to see another student smash his metal arm through a robot and electrocute it from the inside barely two feet away from Mitsuki, who was standing just behind the walls where he'd created a new path for himself. A sparking piece of metal landed by his feet, and then the corridor was filled with flames and smoke once again.
His sister was about to give herself an aneurysm. He could feel it.
"Hijiri."
Ohhhh dear.
Hijiri had been expecting an impending lecture for a full five minutes, and even then he still wasn't mentally ready. Everyone else in the room was giving him sympathetic looks, and, resigned, he looked towards where Haruko was glaring at him.
Oh boy, if looks could kill.
Still, she surprised him with the amount of restraint she carried when she ended up only delivering her spiel that probably would've lasted two minutes verbally in ten seconds with her eyes alone: 'This is a mess. Thanks for inflicting this on me. I hope you're happy. Take responsibility for your child later. Do you just love to watch the world burn. Don't answer that, I know the answer. What a mess, what am I going to do now.'
But he liked to imagine that there was also a faint glint that also expressed the feeling of 'You did the right thing, bringing that child here.'
Hijiri merely shrugged, raising both arms carelessly in a 'what can you do' gesture, and Haruko let out her fifth long sigh in thirty seconds before dropping her pen on the table with a loud clatter. "Aina, status report."
"Yes ma'am!" Aina saluted before bringing up an image of the system controls. "I have successfully recovered what I could and also further isolated the two different locations into separate command centers, but I'm not sure how effective that will be. The Simulation Dome's upper level is now operating normally, so there should be no problems there, but Akemi has moved on-scene to patrol, just in case. The situation underground has mostly been contained, but Kannou Mitsuki still remains beyond my control. I can only do damage control, I can't stop him, but they are approaching where Yuu-kun is on standby so I think we can leave that to him!"
"Well, that's not as bad as it could be," Haruko relented. "What about Kannou's conditions?"
"Physically, everything is normal," Aina informed them, pulling up Mitsuki's current vitals. "Mentally…" She gave a side eye glance at Ayu.
"Nothing to blame him for, of course," Ayu answered calmly. "We can't control triggers and panic attacks, no matter how much we wish we could. Especially since his trauma seems to still be very fresh, it'll take lots of time and safety for him to heal from it. Of course, he's not the only one that applies to either…in this class, or outside of it. After all, that's something all of you here understand very clearly, am I right? You're all pro heroes, after all."
His question was greeted with silence, unintentionally answering it. Ayu simply gave them a sad but knowing smile and went right back to what he had been doing.
"I'll keep an eye on Mitsuki-kun," Aina interrupted suddenly, "but I think the one you should be more concerned about right now is Mari."
Haruko let out a loud groan, throwing herself back in her chair. "All of you are trying to send me to an early grave, I swear—" She grumbled, her voice was exasperated but unsurprised. "Fine, what has that girl done now?"
"Exactly what she said she'd do—excuse my language, but she's beating the shit out of the students."
[END ENTRANCE EXAM II]
Updated Quirks: Kishi, Takumi
A/N: So it's been a hot minute…and that means prepare for a lengthy authors note ahead as usual, because I have a lot to say :3 I'll put my important notes at the top, so please at least read the parts in bold if you could! That would help a lot, thanks!
Oh also, because this author's note is disastrously long, to ComplicatedYetSimple and BlackProtagonist, I did address some questions you had in your last reviews at the bottom! I thought it would be helpful for everyone to see the answers too because they were good questions :3 Sorry I didn't get to them sooner!
The first thing I wanted to address is the issue I have been having with my reviews. There's been a glitch with Fanfiction that the story won't display any reviews posted on any chapter for a few days for whatever reason; please don't worry, I do get the email notifications so I can read them there, but I may come find you if it gets truncated haha. The problem usually fixes itself after a few days thankfully!
Now for the important talk: trigger warnings. As you all can tell, Mitsuki, my dear child, is an absolute mess, and I was halfway through writing this arc when I realized that I should probably start thinking about this. While I do hope that all of you came into this story fully prepared, I do want to err on the side of caution because I want everyone to be safe. That being said, this story will probably have a lot of trigger warnings because as you can tell, many of these children have trauma and mental illnesses that I do want to address accordingly. But I will admit that I am actually not very well versed on mental illnesses. I do not have any personal experience, and I have taken a total of one psychology course, which I fluked through and didn't really pay much attention in anyway (it was an AP course in high school). Most of my knowledge comes entirely from secondhand sources—in other words, through other fanfictions I have read. Regardless, I will do my best to capture everything to the best of my ability, but I do have to apologize in advance if I get anything wrong or don't realize that something requires a warning. I do want to tag things to be safe, but I also don't want to spoil people, so I have been trying to figure out how to do that. The best solution I could come up with was to put a general warning tag at the beginning of the chapter, and then put more specific tags at the bottom that you can access by pressing the blue arrow at the top of the page to scroll all the way to the bottom immediately to read that first if you need to, but this is something that I really want to take seriously so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. If any of you think that I can forego the warning tags altogether, please tell me that too, because I do see people on FF without them, but I also spend a lot of time on Ao3 where people use them a lot. I want everyone to enjoy this story and to stay safe, and I am still admittedly very confused, so I thank you all for your patience in advance and will appreciate any help that I can get regarding this.
I'd wanted to have the next chapter fully written as well so I could post it within two weeks, but uh, the last climatic battle section was not cooperating with me and I've had an exam every week for like six or seven weeks now and I'm so stressed ahhh so ye I will post that whenever I get it written then~
Okay! That's all for the important announcements I think, and that was…lengthier than I expected O.O Welp, I guess I should have expected that from me…
So now for my rambling!
Hi everyone I'm so sorry this is so late, I hope this chapter makes up for the wait? Kind of? B-But good news, I wrote the entire arc, so I have the next chapter already ready to be posted! As I said, I'll post it in two weeks to give me some leeway to write some more and to give you guys something to look forward to~ :D - Prewritten author's note makes this a LIE because I did not finish the last section QwQ But I hope it'll be out within two weeks maybe! I'll post it once it gets written, like I said!
We're starting to get into some action packed scenes, so this was pretty difficult to write, but I think I'm really proud of how it came out in the end! This is also kind of a sneak peek as to what my action writing style will look like moving forward, so I hope that's something that all of you enjoy reading~ I don't know, I think it's rather different from the way other people write actions in some ways. Since I'm writing from a very limited POV, the scope of the action is a bit more limited, and I also do this thing where I literally have to visualize every single move in my head before I can write it out, and that's also why my action scenes are very step by step to try and let you picture exactly what is happening as it happens. Which is kind of weird considering I also don't have any martial arts or fighting experience XD But that also creates somewhat of a flow that I find difficult to interrupt for other details at times? It also can make my sentences really long when I'm really just trying to put my visuals into the right words, and it also is why I can get stuck for really long periods of time—Anyway long story short, I really hope you enjoy my writing style in general and that it's not annoying to read lol.
Also, I'm sorry if there are too many staff scenes in there? I wasn't going to put them, but uhh…they just made transitioning between the two scenes so easy QwQ Also banter is fun to write because I pride myself in my dialogue XD On that note I hope you guys love Mari as much as I do lol she is a riot to write. She also adds disastrously to the alarming amount of cursing I do in this story, but uhh, I hope you all are okay with that? I think it's me projecting because my mom doesn't let me cuss in real life but fanfiction has corrupted me, so~ Plus a lot of these characters are just brash, like Mari, so…yeah~
And final note: I have some reviews I need to address that I didn't last time because I accidentally dropped right into an anti-social block after the chapter was posted!
To ComplicatedYetSimple: I don't think I'll ever post a chapter with character information, but I will definitely see if I can put everything onto a public document and link that in my bio for you guys to access! It unfortunately may not be anytime soon because like I said I am kind of stressed atm but I will get to that when I can, promise!
To BlackProtagonist: Regarding the power scale, generally speaking, I think it's somewhere around canon-level? There are some very powerful Quirks in the mix, but I'm mostly working with the canon scale, I think. I don't know, it usually kind of just happens in my writing, sorry XD I will say that because I am a very soft-hearted person, this story definitely won't be very dark if anyone is worried about that. It may be a just bit darker than the beginning of canon was because I sometimes can get too invested in murder scenes, but I am someone who really doesn't handle hardcore angst without comfort or character death that well, so you can rest assured on that end. About individual power rankings…that's something you'll have to find out for yourself moving forward :3 And please, this goes to anyone, feel free to PM me at any time! I love to talk, and talking to me about your characters is what helps me feel motivated to write! And honestly, I probably respond to PMs better haha
And lastly, thank you so much to Starblitz1312, Roggi, A.J. Aviary, seasel, Yngvarr Frey, LDOLDAL, Arrow-chan3, TimeTheifRedoer, ComplicatedYetSimple, heartattak, and BlackProtagonist for all the lovely reviews in the past two chapters! You really have no idea how much they help motivate me to keep writing! And as always, special thanks to heartattak and Monty's Cloudy Day for your constant support, this story would definitely not exist without you two! Another special thanks to Roggi for sending me a PM cheering me on upon seeing my progress!
And I will end it there because this is already catastrophically long, curse my long-winded habits XD Honestly, if you read all the way up to here, I'm impressed :3 We only have two more chapters until the end of the arc: part three, and an aftermath/admissions/daily life chapter! Thank you all for your support, thank you for your patience, thank you for reading, and please tell me your thoughts on it!
See you all hopefully soon for part two and the big boss battles!
Chi-chan, signing off~
P.S. Did I actually just write a 1500 word A/N holy shit—