My Hero Academia – Under Pressure – Season 3 – Episode 12 – Training and Entering Part 2
The unique training session for Class 1-B continued. The boys had just finished with Armed Guard, and they were exhausted. So exhausted that when they passed the ladies on their way back to the dorms, they could only lightly wave and grunt to acknowledge them.
Fenella cackled at this sight, "Buck up, lads! I'm sure you did your best!"
More grunts emerged, this time of the annoyed variety, which got the ladies to laugh further at the boys plight.
Kuroda calmed them down, though, "That'll be us soon, one way or the other."
Hana nodded at the wisdom of the statement, "Yeah, so don't push them too hard, because they'll bounce back and do the same to us tonight, probably."
The rest of the ladies relented and proceeded to the practice field. A familiar sight greeted them when they did. They saw a wave of small objects cover the practice field. As they got closer, they realized it was the bots made by The Tinkerer to fix things during the Sports Festival.
By the time they approached, the field was spotless, and Angel Wings was ready to teach them.
"Hello ladies," she said with her usual kindness.
"Hello, Angel Wings," they replied back.
"To recap, today and tomorrow you and the boys will be doing two specific, and difficult exercises. These are to help you with the Provisional License Exam that is coming up eventually."
Eri raised her hand, "You and the other teachers have been giving us hints about what might happen at the exam, but will we know what the actual test is beforehand?"
"You will not. The exam changes every year based on an advisory board's suggestions, even the teachers are kept in the dark so that no cheating or favoritism can occur. Any hints you're getting, including the big hint you'll get with these exercises, are based on past exams and what's happened in them. And before you ask, that was deemed ok to do."
"We wouldn't want you in trouble, dear teacher," said Kuroda kindly.
Angel Wings chuckled at that, "Thank you, Kuroda. Now, onto the test. Today you're going to be learning about evasion."
"As in dodging attacks?" wondered Ebirima with a scratch to her temple. "Haven't we done that before."
"Yes and no. You have been taught about dodging attacks, but this is a bit more refined. You're not dodging attacks, you're the ones being dodged."
The clarification…brought no clarification, and the girls were confused even further. Angel Wings waved them down before speaking again.
"I'll explain, I'll explain. In this scenario, all nine of you will be going up against me. My goal is not to beat you, but to not get caught by you within a certain span of time. If you catch me to the point where I can't fly, you win. If I outlast you all, I win."
"With respect," started up Chuya, suspicious about something, "if it was just an evasion situation, why separate us? Oshibu is the fastest of all of us and Ryu can fly."
"An excellent point, but you're missing two salient elements. First, we want everyone to participate evenly. If those two are the targets, they're not getting the training. Second…"
She paused, grinned, then shot out her wings so that they had full extension. This tensed up the group as they weren't sure what she was doing.
"…while they're good and fast, they're not me." Angel Wings boasted with a confidence rarely shown to them.
Though they had seen her in different emotional states before, this was different. This was the Pro-Hero side of Angel Wings coming out to greet them. The one who had seen the battles, rescued lives, and knew the full potential of herself.
"She got really intense…" muttered Kanagita.
"Yep," replied Iha. "I like it."
"As do I," Fenella added with a sly grin.
Confidence still shining through her body, Angel Wings motioned to the others to surround her. The nine girls did just that.
Their teacher waited for them to come all around her then stated, "This first test is kind of a warm-up round. You'll have all the advantages, and the most time. I have an alarm set for fifteen minutes over there. I'll send a signal to it once we start. All you have to do is catch me before that timer runs out."
A question sparked in Ryo's mind, "Oh, are we allowed to work as a team?"
"Of course! You'll be broken down into sets of three after this. But for now, use everything, and everyone, at your disposal to catch me. So…shall we begin?"
The ten ladies on the field prepared themselves in their own way, their fight was about to begin…
…but at the dorms, the boys fight was over, and as they finally entered the common area, their exhaustion was evident.
"That…sucked…" Ueno said, head at a very slow wobble due to his tired state.
"I know that they were trying to push us hard," began Sanda, slight wheeze in his voice, "but that was a lot. Granted, everyone had to go, then go…again…and then…"
His lack of monologue got everyone's attention, and they turned to find Sanda spaced out.
Tonen mustered a small laugh, "At least we know how to prevent a Sanda exposition. Look, we're all tired. I see the cart for our hero garb over there. Let's hit the showers in shifts and relax here for a while. We'll talk with the ladies when they get back, ok?"
The others, even Goya, acknowledged the logic of that plan and started it. The first few guys went to clean up, and took the laundry basket with them for their gear, while the rest sat wherever they thought comfortable.
Not surprisingly, Azujima went to sit next to Tonen, "That was a rough session, TK."
"Yeah," answered Tonen with a sigh, "but it'll be worth it I'm sure. The not-so-subtle hint is that the exams are going to put us in a scenario where enemies are everywhere and we have to deal with them in quick succession."
"Which means I'm in trouble…again…"
"No! That's not what it means, Azu. Stop acting like you don't help. Your senses will keep you alive, and unless they separate us for the exam, we'll be there to back you up."
"But they could split us up, then what would I do?"
TK sighed again and tried to ponder how to help his friend, "I don't know, not yet. But we will figure it out. Just need a spark of inspiration. Which we'll get after we relax and heal. Okay?"
Azujima nodded, "Ok, TK."
They sighed together and relaxed on the couch.
After a pause, Ueno suddenly appeared over them, "How do you think the girls are doing?"
"Oh I'm sure they're fine," Tonen said with a relaxed smile.
Over at the practice field, Angels Wings flew around the others with ease. Their session started off simply enough, with many of them trying to use their Quirks to pin down Angel Wings. But once she flew into the air, that option wasn't as valid. To the extent that she would dodge them with ease, or beat them back with her wings.
Based on her title as "Rescue Hero," one would think that she wouldn't be the most "combat capable," but she made the students eat those thoughts if they had them.
With incredible agility and grace she not only swooped in and out of the area, but used her wings as blunt instruments to whack at her students. They weren't meant to injure, but they did the job of knocking them flat, or even sending them flying at times.
The fifteen-minute session passed quickly, and at the end, the students were left panting while their teacher gracefully touched down on the ground without a scratch on her.
"Well, that was fun!" she said teasingly to her students.
"We didn't even land a single attack on ya!" noted Fenella in between pants.
"I did have a few advantages on you, I'll admit. Not the least was my mobility in the air. If I really wanted to, I could've just stayed up there and not let you touch me at all. But that wouldn't have been sporting, now would it?"
"And hitting us with your wings was sporting…" pondered Ebirima as she rubbed one of her bruises.
"I didn't hit you that hard. Plus, I know you all have taken more damage than that. Don't forget, this is a warm-up for the exam, and the Quirks you'll face there are going to be far more powerful than mine."
"My field would've gotten you…" Iha grumbled.
"That was the other advantage I had," Angel Wings said with a point to Iha. "As I am your teacher, I know your Quirks, and how they work, and how far you pushed them during the summer camp. Your field has gotten bigger, Iha, but it's still an area of effect, and I made sure to avoid that as I flew. It wasn't easy at times, but I made it work. Let that be another lesson to you all. Sometimes…you just need to make it work."
Kuroda was the first to fully straighten up, "So what now? Try again?"
"Indeed. I'll break you up into threes and we'll go again with a ten-minute time limit. Let's see how you do. The rest of you will watch and see if you can gain insight into what might take me down."
With that, the girls shuffled off the court and were put into trios to do the lesson over again. They knew they were in for an equally rough time their numbers advantage was now diminished.
Over at the dorms, the guys slowly worked their way through the showers and soon emerged with fresh bodies. The only one who didn't return to the common area was Goya, but they weren't mad about that.
Ryu was the first to start the chat when they were mostly all together, "So should we expect more lessons like these two on the way to the exams?"
Wasuke strummed his chin at this, "It's hard to say. They'll want us to be in top form, but they don't want us beat down before the exam comes."
"They'll likely give us a day to rest before the exam," put out Doza.
Oshibu blitzed in to get their attention, "I don't know why they're stressing, a lot of us will pass without much effort."
Tonen rolled his eyes and through a nearby book at Oshibu's head. It hit, and it hurt.
"What was that for?"
"You being an idiot!" Tonen answered back, "It's not just about those with overwhelming Quirks. We're repping our school, and our class. Our goal should be to try and pass as one. That would send a nice message…and might score us some points with the teachers."
Azujima laughed a little at this, "They did reward us after the Sports Festival, they could do it again."
"True…" said Sanda as he pondered the two events at once. "But the Provisional Licensing Exam has to be harder than the Sports Festival. Mainly because it's a test to see if we're ready for the field of play that is the real world which is full of villains as we all know and—"
"SANDA!' roared the boys to get him to stop.
"Sorry!"
"Well if the first test was about surviving a swarm, or trying to survive a swarm, what are the girls doing?" wondered Ikaim. "Best guesses?"
Anno pounded his fists together as he thought, "It's impossible to know for sure. That's why they want us to keep the girls in the dark about our test, and vice versa. They want the surprise. They want us to use our instincts and skills to take on whatever test they bring."
"Just like the exam…most likely…" pointed out Ueno.
"Right," acknowledged Tonen. "And we'll keep our word and stay silent. I'm not sure how they'd find out about us telling…but I don't want to risk it."
"How long until the girls get back do you think?" asked Azujima.
"Oh we were out there for an hour or so non-stop. I bet they'd do the same to keep it fair. We'll just relax here in the meantime. In fact, I'll go to my room and get one of my sketchpads to draw out here while I wait."
"I'll join you upstairs, I need to get something from my room too."
"Ok."
They got up and headed to their rooms.
Once they separated, Tonen went right to his door and opened it. Almost immediately, he felt something was wrong.
"What is that…?" he said to himself.
Unable to pinpoint what was wrong from the entryway, he went into his room and looked at everything he could. His bed, his closet, he shelves, everything seemed to be in place.
"Right where I left you…"
His relief was short-lived, because as he looked at his desk, he noticed the top art book was out of place.
"But not where I left you…"
Tonen went to it and picked it up. He could tell from its positioning that someone had rifled through it, but he didn't know who or why.
He held the book so that he could view the page ends, and sure enough, one of the pages had a folded corner that stuck out from the rest.
Before he could see who it was that looked at the book, a knock came at the door.
When he opened it, Azujima was there, and he looked very uncomfortable, "Uh, TK…?"
"Yeah, Azu? What's wrong?" he asked, though he felt he knew the answer.
"I think some of the girls were in my room…and I'm not sure what to do."
He quickly pulled Azujima into the room and closed the door.
"Do you smell perfume in my room right now?"
Stunned at first, Azujima sniffed a little and his eyes immediately grew wide, "Yeah, that's the same smell that was in my room!"
Tonen's face morphed into one of displeasure. Azujima rarely saw his friend like this, and it upset him a little.
Not waiting for his thoughts to fester, Tonen went to the door, "Come on, Azu, we need to talk to the guys."
"Wait for me!"
On the practice field, the girls went through the session as best they could. But no matter how well they did, it was never enough.
Kuroda was with Iha and Ryo, which made them advantageous in certain ways given Iha's Quirk and Ryo's drones. But even with some extra help from Kuroda, they couldn't pin down their teacher.
Eri had Kanagita and Ebirima on her team, and they took had some advantages they could use. Eri and Ebirima worked together to launch Eri at their teacher at times, but it never worked out. Kanagita did lunges at her Brick Break form, but they too never landed. Much to the chagrin of the powered-up form.
Finally, Chuya was with Fenella and Hana, and one could argue they came the closest to taking down Angel Wings. Chuya's water gave her some aerial options. Ones that were much more useful due to the clearer skies. Fenella rode her runes in the air to back her up. Hana used her dirt form to hide underground until their teacher came close so she could do a sneak attack. But even with all that, it wasn't enough.
The rounds went by quickly, and they each did two to make sure that the lesson sunk in. Much like the boys, when they were done, they were dead tired.
Even Angel Wings showed some slight exhaustion, but it was because she had spent the last 75-minutes dodging her students at an intense rate.
"I think you all did well," praised the teacher. "If not obvious, the goal of this lesson was to prepare you for a foe who might have the edge in mobility. Multiple past exams have focused on catching, tagging, or hitting an opponent. That won't be easy to do if you can't catch them due to their Quirk making them agile, like with me."
Eri stretched out her sore limbs to get feeling back into them, "Given the different schools that'll be there, it's not too much of a stretch to think that one could have your skill in flight. Or there be another speedster like Oshibu."
"Precisely. Be ready for anything at anytime and by anyone. That will be further made clear in your second lesson that you'll do tomorrow. For now, return to your dorms, wash up, and rest. And again, great job today."
The ladies gave a slightly more enthusiastic parting to their teacher before they departed. But there was no doubt that they were tired, and tired of being tired at one point.
"I thought summer camp was over," lamented Fenella, "I hated how exhausted I was after every day of that."
Ebirima nodded in agreement, "It was rough, both that and this."
"We survived, so no complaining," chastised Kuroda with clear grumpiness. "Not to mention, we saw the boys when they came to the dorm. So the Armed Guard lesson is likely to be just as brutal."
The majority of them groaned loudly at this, but didn't comment further.
When they returned to the dorm, they entered the common area together. But they paused near a wall when they realized that across the room were the boys, save for Goya, and they weren't happy.
"Hi ladies," started Tonen, scowl on his face, "we need to talk."
Before they could reply, Tonen exhaled sharply and an equally sharp blast of wind threw the ladies right into the wall.
Their surprise was overtaken by anger. Chuya was especially miffed, "What was that for?"
"You went into our rooms."
The anger on the ladies melted away quickly. The vast majority went into rather sheepish expressions or positions. Eri and Kuroda sighed like ones who had been caught in the act, and Chuya kept her anger, but it wasn't directed at the boys.
"I knew this was stupid from the start."
"Oh pipe down, you," scolded Kuroda. "Alright, how did you find out?"
Tonen held up his art book, Ebirima was shocked at this, "This was the first clue. I keep my books perfectly straight on my desk, yet this one was ajar from the rest. Then, Azujima said he could tell a certain perfume was in his room, and mine. One that matches…"
He looked at Hana, whose embarrassment grew, which got Tonen to nod.
"To your credit, Hana, you don't wear a lot of it. But I noticed it previously and it stuck out. And for a nose like Azujima's? You never stood a chance."
"I'm sorry…"
Tonen shook his head, "Save the apologies for now. After that, I had the other guys check their rooms. While you were flawless in some of them, others you weren't."
"Like with my photograph," Ueno said, head still and expressed displeased.
Anno bore his shark teeth, "And my own senses could tell that my lights had been turned on before I got back to my room."
"I think you lads are taking this too personally," said Fenella with Cheshire grin back.
Tonen wasn't having it, "Quiet, Rune. I wouldn't be surprised if it was your idea!"
"It was my idea, boyo."
"But we all went along with it," admitted Kuroda with another sigh. "Well, except Chuya and Hana, they were forced into it."
"Small comfort, but noted," Tonen said with a small shake of the head.
"You have my word, Tonen, we touched only a few things in your rooms. We didn't rummage through your drawers, or steal anything. We just…thought we'd get a look into who you were when behind closed doors."
"But you didn't ask to do that, Kuroda!"
Him not using her nickname showed how serious he was, and they all knew it.
"Some of us likely didn't want that 'inside look' to be well known. Such as with my bed, which I'm sure put you on edge," noted Wasuke.
"Plus it was a total invasion of privacy," added Doza.
"What they said," said Sanda with rare brevity.
Ryo tried to get her brother's attention, but Ryu looked away, which made her sad.
"A little peak? Sure, why not?" Oshibu noted with a shrug. "But you went into our rooms fully and looked around as if they were museums!"
Ikaim grunted, "And who knows what you thought or said as you looked through them."
"If the roles were reversed, and we did that to you, you would've killed us," finished Tonen with a stare at Kuroda. "Or at the least reported us to the principal and the teachers. Nothing we would've said would have made a difference. Am I wrong?"
His glare at Kuroda continued, and she shook her head eventually, "No, you're not wrong. We're sorry."
"We'll see how true that is soon. Thankfully for you all, we know you didn't take anything or go beyond what Kuroda said. Let my air blast, and our collective disappointment, be your punishment for now. We're going to our rooms…do not try and enter them. Come on, guys."
One by one, the guys fell out and made for the staircase. Tonen was the last to go, but just before he departed, he strummed back through the art book and held up a page in particular.
It was Ebirima's page, and it had a crease in the corner from where the page was improperly folded.
"Hope you all liked the pictures," he said devoid of emotion.
Tonen closed the book and went up the stairs.
The girls groaned collectively as they knew their "fun time" had backfired on them spectacularly.
Ebirima was particularly distraught over what happened, "I bet he hates me now."
Fenella quickly comforted her, "Not at all, lass, he's just disappointed. If anything, he's mad at me for starting all this. That's why I admitted it was me when he brought it up. I can take the heat from him."
"Thanks, Fenella."
Kuroda clapped her hands a few times to get their attention, "Alright, let's just end this day before anything else happens. Some of you volunteer to take a shower first, then knock on the others doors when it's their time. Go right to your rooms afterward. I'll try and get on the boys' good side tomorrow."
Some of them tried to offer suggestions or ideas, but Kuroda shot them all down and ordered them to get with the plan she outlined.
The ladies cleaned up and headed to their rooms, and for the first time in Class 1-B's history, the mood of the entire dorm was sadness, anger, shame and discontent.
When the sun rose, the mood had not lifted. If anything, it had intensified with the time that had passed. The tension was stifling, and for some of the ladies, as well the gentlemen, it made them ill.
But there was no time to be sick, as the classes had to continue. Both sides of Class 1-B didn't talk to one another from their awakening all the way to homeroom.
When Angel Wings greeted them, their reply was as monotone as could be. They were too blinded by their own emotions to notice that their teacher didn't have a big reaction to this. Instead, she just started the lesson.
The classes went by at a slog's pace in the minds of the students. Many of them wanted to be anywhere but there, yet they couldn't move an inch.
By the time the lessons were to happen, they were antsy, the class desired nothing more than to cut loose.
The ladies went first to the practice session, and the guys went to the dorm without a word to the other side.
When the ladies reached Armed Guard, he told them of their challenge with the swarm test and quickly began it. As they started to go through it, they could see why the guys had such a hard time with it and were exhausted by the end.
While they did this, Tonen and the rest of the guys, save for Goya, fumed over in the common area. They were still very antsy, but they had to wait, which made the feeling grow.
Tonen was on the couch. He lied on it and stared at the ceiling as though the marks upon it would unlock the secrets of the universe.
"I know what you're thinking, 'they didn't anything wrong, not really! So why are you mad?' Let me put to you this way. Imagine you met someone on the train one day. And you met them every day on that train and talked about everything that came to mind. You looked forward to hanging out with that person every day. But then, one day, you left your backpack on the train in the rush to get out. Your friend took it with them to keep it safe so she could give it to you back. Yet, instead of letting things lie, she went through your backpack to see what you had in it. Not because she had to in order to contact you, but because she wanted to see what was in it for her personal curiosity. How would you feel if she was your friend and did that to you?"
Tonen laughed softly at a joke only he knew.
"That's what I thought. Look, we'd been living with the girls for months now, and sure, there were 'incidents' that I didn't tell you about. But that was more about etiquette and being respectful in each other's presences. This? This was different. Kuroda knew better. Hana, Chuya, and Eri should've put a kibosh on things instantly, and not caved to the pressure of the others. But they didn't. It's like Ikaim had said, who knows how they viewed us when they went into the rooms. Do they appreciate us more? Do they like us more…if you get my drift? Or perhaps they pity us, which we didn't ask for. Or want. It may seem odd that at 15 we have such feelings…but what I can say? We're hormonal teenagers, we get in moods."
As Tonen tried to calm himself down, he further felt his mental state get into a rut he couldn't climb out of.
He wasn't the only one with such states. At one point, Oshibu blitzed around the around until he couldn't take it anymore, "Alright, enough! We have to get back at them instead of lying around doing nothing!"
Wasuke wasn't impressed by the suggestion, "Because vengeance solves so many problems…"
"You may be old-fashioned in some ways, but I'm fine with getting dirty. I used to pull pranks on my sister all the time, and she did the same to me. Sometimes, people deserve it."
"If you suggest we go into their rooms, I'm out," noted Azujima with clear resolve.
Oshibu waved that off, "Trust me, that would cause far more problems that it's worth. I want to prank them. I want them to realize what it's like when something you feel is secure is suddenly violated 'just for fun."
Anno chuckled evilly at the idea, "How sinister, embracing our inner villain! I would recommend something shark-related…but I don't have nine sharks on hand. Or at least not that I could get here in an hour."
"How many can you get with proper planning?" wondered Doza.
"Well it's—"
"Can it!" overrode Oshibu. "Are we all in? This has to be a unified front."
Some of them raised their hands to show they were in. Others were hesitant. That included Ueno, "Given that Tonen is our de facto male leader, I want his approval before I join anything."
Whether they could view him or not, they all turned to Tonen, who still lied on the couch. He sighed after a moment's thought, "Guys, pranks are silly, immature, and get nothing done."
He then rose and turned to them all with a blank expression.
"…what kind of prank do we have in mind?"
Surprised, and energized, the guys started to think of a plan that they could do within the next hour. Many had grand ideas, but they didn't have the time or materials to get it done.
Unbeknownst to them, while they were in their brainstorming session, Ryu had vanished. They only noticed when he raced into the common area once more with a variety of mechanical items that he dropped on the table to get their attention.
"Guys, let me take point on this!" he said with abundant energy. "I've wanted to do this prank for so long but never had the opportunity…"
The guys weren't sure what to make of Ryu's look, or his arsenal, but something told Tonen that this would be fun, "What do you have in mind?"
With time slowly running out, the guys made a blitz to the girls' rooms and setup their prank. It was simple in nature, but devious in its result.
As it was set up by Ryu and the others, Azujima pulled Tonen aside, "TK, are you sure about this?"
"Usually I wouldn't condone such ideas," Tonen admitted with a sympathetic look to his friend. "But you saw the others, they're just as agitated as we are. Think of this as a kind of pressure release valve. If we don't focus them now, they'll go off later and that could get ugly. And I'll take the fall if things get out of hand, ok?"
"But I don't want you to take the fall! Oshibu should if things go wrong."
"Like they said, I'm de facto leader. But don't worry, this should be fine…hopefully."
He gave a playful look to Azujima to calm his friend down, and the two went to work with the others.
They had just finished the last room's prank when they got the message from Angel Wings that it would be their turn soon for the training. The guys did their best to ensure that there were no signs of foul play then rushed to get dressed for the session.
Outside, the ladies had finished their final run with Armed Guard, who gave them a speech on the importance of the lesson like Angel Wings did with hers.
"The POINT of this lesson should be obvious with the upcoming exam," he said with usual intensity. "Multiple past exams have featured whole classes ganging up on one another to try and secure an early advantage. Even if you survive the initial assault, you must be prepared for another ambush. You have time to grow in the days leading up to the exam. If you think you need something to enhance your odds of surviving an ambush, or helping take down enemies with high mobility/evasion, do so. That's what the facilities are for."
"Yes, Armed Guard," the ladies said, but with obvious exhaustion in their voice.
"Good. DISMISSED!"
The girls got up and made their way to the dorms. Some were so tired they had to support one another, which they didn't mind doing. As they did, they passed the boys, who were fully dressed for their training session.
As Kuroda got close to Tonen, she reached out, "Tonen, can we-?"
"Later," he said briskly and went by her without a second look.
"Yeah…I deserved that."
With that dejection, they went back to the dorms, and the boys went to see Angel Wings on the fixed practice field.
"Alright boys, let's get this started," she said with an odd vibe coming off her. "Today's training is about evasion… What do I mean by that? Well…"
As she explained, and soon started the course, the ladies went back to the dorm and cooled themselves off in the showers and changed into less sweat-drenched clothes. Unlike the previous day, the rest of them waited in the common area and rotated in and out of the bathrooms until all of them were clean and relaxed.
But the silence of the room soon filled them with dread, especially since they knew the boys would return, and their own training session wouldn't fill them with the desire to talk.
"Kuroda?" piped up Ebirima, slightly fearful. "I really don't want to face their wrath again. Can we just go to our rooms until we're called together again?"
Kuroda thought about it and then nodded, "Go ahead. I'm going to stay here and make another attempt when they arrive. You all get out of the blast area."
"I'm the one who should take the hit," noted Fenella, hands on her hips, "I already copped to the idea, let me take their wrath for you all."
"You'll be the second person to properly apologize. But for now, let me do it. I'm the rep for all of us, it falls on me first to mend fences. Now go! Before I change my mind and turn us into the group getting ready for the firing squad!"
Not wanting to see what she meant, the ladies slowly went to their rooms. Kuroda sat in a chair at the nearby table and strummed the piece of furniture as she wondered what she would say to Tonen.
Ebirima was the first to reach her room. Mainly because she was in a rush to get out of sight. She didn't feel great the whole day, and the fear of the boys made it worse. But to her surprise, when she touched her door handle, she got a shock.
"Ow!" she said as her hand recoiled off the handle. "Didn't realize I built such a charge from the carpet."
Shaking off the feeling, she grabbed the handle again, and another shock rocked her. But to her surprise once again, other shouts of pain emanated from the dorm. She turned to see the other girls of Class 1-B going through the same act of getting shocked once they touched the door handles.
What's more, it seems that some of them were getting shocked more than the others.
Down in the common room, Kuroda got up at the sound of the shouts and screams and raced to see what happened. When she got to the first floor, she was greeted by the majority of them.
But it was Fenella who caught her eyes. As her stringy red hair was now standing nearly on top of her head as a "fried" puff of hair, "I'm going to kill those lads!"
Preventing a laugh at the sight, Kuroda tried to regain control, "Wait, what did they do?"
"They electrified our door handles," revealed Eri, not pleased with the situation. "It seems they pranked us in payback."
"Oh no… Alright, let's go handle this…"
The guys had just gotten their blessing from Angel Wings to leave and they made their way back to the dorm. While their evasion training was tiring, the feeling amongst the guys, save for Goya, was that they wanted to know what effect their prank had.
"How long do you think it'll take for them to blow up at us?" wondered Oshibu as he oozed anticipation.
"Depending on who got shocked? Not long," figured Anno.
"Dare I ask what in the world you're talking about?" asked Goya with a mix of caring and not caring.
Tonen made to speak, but as he looked ahead, he saw the ladies marching right towards them, fury apparent on many of their faces, "Oh, you're about to find out soon, Goya. Ironically, this is the one time you're completely innocent of something. I'll be sure to point that out when the time comes."
Sure enough, the two sides squared off on the path to the dorm.
Fenella's hair was still standing on end, and many of the guys couldn't help but laugh. Ikaim couldn't hold in the obvious joke, "Hey Fenella, do something with your hair?"
"Stuff it!" she shouted, "How would you like a rune up your backside?"
"I don't want that. But if you did it…I'm sure it'd be…shocking…"
The pun reversal on Fenella got the boys to laugh out loud. Even Tonen and Azujima couldn't help but get in on it. The girls weren't amused.
Kuroda looked at Tonen with her own kind of disappointment, "Electricity? Really, Tonen?"
Tonen shrugged nonchalantly, "It could've been worse. We could've done something re-volt-ting…"
The pun got the boys to laugh again, which really agitated the girls. This time it was Eri who was disappointed, "That was dangerous, one of us could've gotten hurt."
"Now who's being insulting?" asked Ryu with a glare to the mimic. "I know electricity backwards and forwards. I know how much to dish out to make things work, make things overload, or to make sure you get a shock to the system. You got enough to hurt, but not to maim or cripple."
"Besides, not all of you got the same shock," pointed out Tonen with a motion to a few of them. "The biggest jolt went to Fenella, who couldn't be happier to admit it was her idea to invade our rooms. Some of you, like Soldier, Kana, Bubble Gum, and Shifty got lesser shocks because it was obviously not your idea and you got roped into it. So you got nothing more than a carpet spark."
"I appreciate you not lumping me in with them," said Chuya with a nod to Tonen.
"You still went, Soldier. It's a still a reprimand on your record."
"One I accept, and apologize for."
"Duly noted, Soldier."
Kuroda stepped up to Tonen with clear annoyance, "I don't care who got the bigger shock or not. You actually tried to hurt us, Tonen!"
Tonen didn't back down, "And you didn't? You violated our personal spaces and didn't think we'd find out or care! We hurt you physically. You hurt us mentally and emotionally. I think we're about even."
"Even? This isn't a game!"
"If it was, you lost before it even began!"
"Actually, you both lost…" noted a voice from behind the boys.
To their surprise, Angel Wings approached, and she wasn't happy. Not one bit.
As the teacher got to the meridian between the two, her displeased expression grew, "If you recall, I told you that there were some lessons that were a part of these lessons that wouldn't be explained to you immediately. Your two "acts" against one another made you fail both tests."
"What tests?" asked Azujima, who matched everyone else in their confusion over the events that had happened.
This time it was Angel Wings who sighed and pointed to the dorms, "The first test was a test of trust. You all have been in the dorms since the beginning as a mixed group. Even with the separation on floors, you were all so close to one another that it would've been impossible, or stupid, to do something to each other's rooms. So, a challenge was thought up where we separate the genders, and so who broke the rules first."
"Wait," arose the voice of Ebirima, "you expected us to do this?"
"No! I did not! But the test was to see if one side or the other would take the 'opportunity' and break the trust of the other side. Which you ladies did without much discussion or effort."
The girls shied away from the glare their teacher gave them.
Ueno's head wobble slowed for a bit as he tried to put the pieces together, "So…the test for us?"
"A test of retaliation," she answered, still very angry. "If a wrong was put onto one side or the other, would the other side retaliate? Or would they turn the other cheek? I shouldn't have to explain what option you chose…"
A nervous laughter broke out on the side of the guys, except for Goya, who happily raised his hand, "I had no hand in either side of this, you can ask Tonen if you don't believe me."
"Like I care!" roared Angel Wings to the shock of all. "You weren't included because the girls didn't go into your room, the ONLY boys' room that wasn't entered by them. What does that say about you in their eyes? And, I wouldn't be surprised if you went the most overboard had they done gone in your room! Besides, your sins among the rest of your class are so numerous that this one bright spot on your record means nothing. So, silence!"
Goya was royally shut down and could do nothing but pout and look away.
"Let me make one thing very clear. I adore almost your entire class. I love singing your praises and talking about how you're going to make great Pro-Heroes one day. I don't have children, but I have my students. Right now? I am very much in the role of a disappointed parent. It took little to no prodding to set you against one another. These are the classmates you've fought alongside, trained with, and even risked your lives to go save! Yet at the first opportunity you do this to one another?"
She looked at both sides, who couldn't meet her gaze as they understood the depths of their mistakes.
"The only good news of the last two days is that you did adequately in the training sessions. Such sessions should be expected in some form up until your Provisional License Exams. For your sakes, you need to rebuild your trust with one another before them. Because if you try and go in alone against the other students? Or try and do a 'battle of the genders'? You'll lose. Now go back to your dorms."
She pointed to the dorms and slowly the class walked away. The last two to leave were Kuroda and Tonen, who looked at each other with very sad eyes.
Tonen was the only one to make an attempt to speak, "Angel Wings?"
"…yes, Tonen?" she replied simply.
"It wasn't your idea to do this test, was it?"
"…no, it wasn't. I was the only one against it. Mainly because I thought you all would be mature enough to resist such stereotypical behavior. Guess I was wrong."
With that, she turned and left. Kuroda and Tonen again looked one another with sad expression.
"What are we going to do, Tonen?" she asked honestly.
"Fix it. Fix it like only a big brother and big sister can do," he replied with a pat to her shoulder. "Come on…K-Rep."
He made for the dorm, and Kuroda gave a small smile at hearing her nickname again.
The two knew there were a lot of hard feelings going around given the events of the last day. But they knew that for the betterment of their class, they had to heal those feelings.
So that's exactly what they set out to do.
*credits*
