Chapter 82

[Silence]

As the final days before the exam were upon the students, they went through their day as they always did. In school with their teachers. As Aizawa was currently the teacher with them, he began to talk about said exam. "Here's a useful tip about the big exam. Most years, you have to rescue someone from a pretend disaster, which can be difficult. So let's prepare now."

[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST Hero A Instrumental]

A picture of two teams was then shown on the board behind the homeroom teacher as he began to explain what the group was going to do. "One team of ten, and one of eleven. Each group will complete a training exercise together." The teams were as follows.

Team A
Tsuyu Asui

Tenya Iida

Ochako Uraraka

Denki Kaminari

Ejiro Kirishima

Fumikage Tokoyami

Shoto Todoroki

Katsuki Bakugo

Izuku Midoriya

Momo Yaoyorozu

Team B

Yuga Aoyama

Mina Ashido

Mashirao Ojiro

Koji Koda

Rikido Sato

Mezo Shoji

Kyouka Jiro

Hanta Sero

Toru Hagakure

Minoru Mineta

Sora [N/A]

"It looks like I'm on team A." Tenya commented.

"Iida, and Tsu?" Ochako noticed who she was working with. "We've got this in the bag. I can't wait!"

"We'll just have to do our best, ribbit." Tsuyu spoke up.

"We'll kill this thing." Denki said.

"Oh we're all over it." Ejiro agreed while fist bumping his electric classmate.

"Teamwork is always incredibly important for our training." Momo spoke to the two quiet boys on her team. "So I'm looking forward to working with you, Tokoyami, Todoroki."

"Sure." Shoto replied.

"Together we will prevail." Fumikage responded.

"Ugh...I'm on the same team as that damn nerd?" Katsuki mumbled through his teeth. "I'd even take Sora over him."

While Izuku was understandably intimidated by that, he also took note of that last comment, realizing that Bakugo might have finally started to form a bond with the Keyblade wielder.

"Team B, huh?" Sora commented. "Been a while since we've done a group exercise together, huh Mezo, Mashirao, Toru?"

"Since our first battle trial." Shoji answered.

"But now, it's all of us working together." Ojiro commented.

"And all of us have only gotten better since then!" Hagakure added.

"Hmph, I was always perfect, but I don't mind showing that to you all once more." Yuga chimed in.

"At least he's confident in himself." Rikido noted, while Koji silently nodded to that.

"Oh yeah! Let's kick some butt Team B!" Mina cheered.

"Absolutely." Hanta liked her enthusiasm.

"Damn it. I can't pull anything, with Sora and I on the same team." Minoru uttered, before an earphone jack entered his ear and transmitted a very unpleasant sound into him.

"Don't forget that I won't hesitate to hurt you either." Kyouka told him.

"Now then." Aizawa then spoke up once more. "You'll begin the exercise immediately. Everyone go change into your costumes. Team A will regroup at Ground Beta, while Team B regroups in the Monetary Room."

[Silence]

When everyone in team B was present, they saw Moogle at the terminal that worked the datascape. The merchant then spoke up. "All Might's waiting for you all in there, Kupo. Just go two at a time, Kupo."

The class did as instructed and were funneled into the datascape. Once they stopped seeing the multiple zeroes and ones flash before their eyes, they noticed that they were in an exact replica of Ground Beta. They suspected that would be the case, as it would let the two teams do the same exercise at the same time and avoid overlapping each other.

The group then saw Toshinori, who was waiting in front of a building that looked like it had caught fire. "I see that you've all arrived. Here's your mission." He tossed the group a small device that gave them a holographic projection of the layout of the building that they were in front of, as well as sending them all the detailed events of what had happened to this place to their phones, or in Sora's case, his AR device, as it was linked to his phone.

[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST An Abdominal Investigation]

While most of the group was still looking at the layout of the building, seeing just how big it was, Sora read out loud what the briefing was for this mission. "Just two hours ago, a fire broke out under this large underground shopping mall. The fire was extinguished and most people present were evacuated, but not everyone was accounted for and there is one confirmed person still trapped inside this building. We need to find this citizen and get them out as quickly and safely as possible."

"For training purposes, the citizen is a training dummy, so just think of it as an injured and unconscious person." Yagi added in.

The Keyblade wielder nodded before he continued reading. "Damage from the fire knocked out the main power generator, but a backup generator is still working." Just then, his AR device lost connection to his phone, which surprised him. "What the. I just lost connection with my phone."

Some of the other students noticed their phones had lost signal as well. "I just lost my signal too." Kyouka noticed.

"Same here." Hanta said.

"This place must be an internet dead zone now." Mezo realized. "We won't be able to communicate with each other with electrical devices."

"We don't exactly have other means of communicating with each other." Mashirao pointed out.

"So then we just stick together and look for the citizen as a group." Minoru suggested.

"That would take too long." Rikido stated. "We'll need to split up to have better chances of finding the citizen."

"We'll need a place and time to meet up then." Toru said.

"This mall has like, six different floors to go though." Mina pointed out.

"Then let's all start at the bottom." Sora said.

"I thought we we're going to split up." Yuga spoke up, with Koji also wondering what the Keyblade wielder was thinking.

"We will." Sora clarified. "But this is the idea I have in mind. We'll all take the central stairs down to the lowest level and split into four groups. We'll search the floor for ten minutes and if we find nothing, we'll meet back at the stairs and then go to the next floor up and repeat the process."

"That's a good idea. Let's get going." Shoji was fine with that plan and took the lead, going inside first with everyone else following him.

[Play KH2 OST Magical Mystery]

As the group began to descend down the stairs, the eleven students had discussed who would go with who, mainly seeing who would best compliment one another as smaller groups.

Mezo, Toru and Koji would go together as one group, with Shoji's tracking abilities being able to account for the noises that Hagakure makes, as well as maybe finding any animals for Koda to ask where they saw this citizen. Hanta, Minoru and Mashirao would go as a group, as Mineta's sticky balls could work in tandem with Sero's tape, while Ojiro could help clear any obstructions with his tail, also no girls to distract the purple pervert. Rikido, Mina and Kyouka would go as another group, as Jiro's quirk would also be useful for tracking all around her group's area, while Ashido and Sato could clear obstructions in the way for more clear pathways and quick escape routes from any dangerous areas. And then Sora and Yuga would be together as a pair, as the Keyblade wielder was pretty compatible with basically everyone in his class, and he could deal with most of the searching while Aoyama helps clear obstructions with his naval laser and illuminate any potentially dark areas while Sora's abilities are on recharge.

Once the group reached the lowest floor. They split into their groups and each picked a cardinal direction. Mezo's team went north, Hanta's went west, Kyouka's went south, and Sora's went east.

Shoji had his dupli arms make multiple eyes and ears, while Hagakure and Koda looked around. "This place is so huge." Toru commented.

"At least it's bright enough for us to search without much issue." Shoji pointed out. "Keep your eyes out for anyone."

"Got it." Hagakure said while Koji understood and nodded as well.

With Sero's group, he noticed something right away. "It looks like all of the doors here are shuttered."

"You think the guy we're looking for got stuck in one of these?" Mineta wondered.

"If they were shuttered, then they wouldn't have been open for the public to have access to." Ojiro told him.

"Yeah." Hanta agreed. "That means that our guy can't be in any of those areas."

"At least that helps narrow down the areas to search. I don't wanna be down here any longer than I have to." Minoru said.

"Then focus on finding the citizen so you can get out of here." Mashirao told him.

Over with Jiro's group, she had her jack in the wall but was getting nothing. "No noises. Guess we'll be searching the old fashioned way." She turned on the light on her phone to help illuminate the dark area they were searching.

"We'll follow your lead." Sato said while he and Ashido also had their phone lights on. The three of them then traversed the dark corridors close together.

Over with Sora and Aoyama, the Keyblade wielder had briefly illuminated the area ahead of them with his Keyblade, by shooting a small beam of light from the tip of it. The two of them also noticed how all of the stores down here were shuttered and wondered why. "Why would all of the stores down here be closed before the fire broke out?" Yuga asked.

"Maybe the staff didn't want any people coming down here?" Sora guessed. "Beats me as to why they would want that though."

[Silence]

Just then the two of them felt a tremor and the area around them began to shake. "Whoa!" Both of them struggled to stay on their feet. The ground below them then suddenly cracked. Sora acted fast and grabbed his partner, before activating his flowmotion and quickly moving the two of them out of the way of the crumbling floor and ceiling. After dodging more of the ceiling coming down and the floor opening up, the two of them made it back to the central stairwell. Sora then let his partner go, setting him down on the base of the stairs. "You okay Yuga."

"Oui, monsieur." Aoyama told him. "That was rather sudden."

[Play KH 2.5 Remix OST Space Paranoids]

Sora looked in the direction that the others went and noticed that the conditions of those areas were just as worse for wear as they were on their end. "Yuga. Stay here and keep a lookout for any of our other classmates. Make sure that everyone gets back before we leave this floor."

"I'm assuming that you're going to go look for the others?" Aoyama guessed.

"Yeah." Sora confirmed. "I'll make sure not to get lost."

"I'm sure you won't, Sora." The French boy said. "Well, you can count on me to attract the group, as the shining beacon that I always am."

"I appreciate that a lot, Yuga." The Keyblade wielder smiled at his partner, before using his flowmotion to dart down the north pathway. As Sora had traversed down the halls, he had already noticed how much debris had obstructed his path, but unlike most other times, he didn't want to brute force his way through this one, so whenever a path was blocked by too much debris, he had no choice but to find a way around. During this time, he began to call out to his classmates. "Helloooooooooo!" There was nothing so far. "Can anyone hear me?!"

For the next couple minutes, he kept calling out to people, but the only sounds he heard back were the echoes of his voice and movements down the dark halls that were around him. Just as he was about to turn back and look for another group however, he heard a female voice call out. "Hey! Heeeey!"

Sora heard that and yelled out "Where are you?!"

"Over here!" The girl yelled back. It sounded like it was a few halls over.

"Stay where you are! I'll come get you!" The Keyblade wielder reassured her.

"I will!" She replied. "I'll tell you when I see you!"

Sora then moved in the direction that he heard his classmate, and soon enough reached a hall that had a few open holes on the floor. Using his flowmotion he blitzed over them, but when he reached the other side of the hall, he collided with something that he didn't even know was in front of him, which made him stumble and fall, landing face first on the ground. "Ow. What was that?"

"Ow ow. Sorry." The girl he heard from before spoke up. "I shouldn't have stood in the middle of the pathway." It was Toru, gloves, boots and all.

"Yeah. That might have helped." The Keyblade wielder felt inclined to agree with her comment. "So, where's the rest of your group?"

"I don't know." She answered. "When the tremors started some rubble was about to fall on us. I was pushed out of the way by Shoji, but we got separated after that. What about you and Aoyama?"

"Yuga's waiting by the stairs for everyone." Sora explained. "I told him to make sure that everyone is there before we get out of here."

"Do you remember how to get back there?" Hagakure asked.

Sora tapped on his AR device and it showed a miniature map on the top right corner of the visor. It kept track of his distance traveled, as well as traced where he came from. "Go straight through the hall that I just came down, take a right on the next intersection, take a left, two more past that, then a right and head straight. Yuga will be waiting."

"Thanks." The invisible girl appreciated the guidance. "Sorry that I can't be of much help right now."

"It's okay, Toru." The Keyblade wielder assured her. "As long as we all get out of here safe, I'll be happy."

Once Hagakure was through the hole filled hallway, she and Sora split off. The Keyblade wielder continued his search while she followed his directions to go meet up with Aoyama at the stairs. Sora took a look at the minimap on his AR device and had also noticed that it showed a 'No' symbol icon on pathways that he had discovered were obstructed, which was great, as it meant that he wouldn't run the risk of running into the same dead end twice. The boy continued onwards, finding a few more dead ends that would be marked on his AR device's minimap, before noticing something else pop up on the minimap. It was a red line of sorts that seemed to be close. After turning a few corners and reaching the area where the red line was, it was shown to be one of the stairways. Sora then realized that the red line on his minimap indicated entrances and exits to areas that he was.

[Silence]

As he was about to call out to see if anyone had taken them up, he heard squeaking. He briefly looked around him to figure out what made that sound, then heard it again underneath him. He looked down and to his surprise, he saw a rat. "Oh, hi little guy. Huh?" He then noticed something on the rat. It looked like it was holding something with its mouth. "What do you have there little guy?" The rat dropped the thing in its mouth, which Sora realized was a slip of paper. He picked it up and it had three words written on it. "Follow him back." As if on command, the rat then scurried off in the direction that it came from, catching Sora's attention. "Uh, hey! Wait up!"

[Play FF7 Remake OST Sector 7 in Ruins]

It took a while, and he had to watch his step the whole time, but he managed to follow the rat through multiple halls and soon found the rodent crawling under a hole that was just big enough for him to slide under. When he pushed himself back to his feet, he saw that ahead of him was Koda, whose legs were trapped under some rubble, along with an unconscious Shoji, who was almost buried under debris. "Koji! Mezo!" Sora called out, catching Koda's attention, who saw Sora and the rat make it towards him. The boy looked relieved to see a familiar face. "Are you stuck?" The Keyblade wielder asked, to which the silent boy nodded. "Alright, I'll get you out."

Sora looked at what he was dealing with, and could see that he was going to have to be careful. He needed to move the debris off of Koda, while making sure that the pile of rubble would not collapse onto him, as well as Shoji. The Keyblade wielder took his time and moved pieces of the pile off bit by bit. He also used the Kingdom Key to help him dislodge any debris that was a bit harder to move, but wouldn't cause the pile to collapse. After a minute and a half of careful digging, he managed to get Koji out of the pile. The two of them then worked together to get Mezo out , with Sora using his Keyblade to move enough debris out of the way, while Koda pulled Shoji's body out. The Keyblade wielder then casted Cure on the pair and then prodded his dupli armed classmate until he began to regain consciousness.

Mezo slowly opened some of his eyes, and pushed himself off his back. He took a moment to look around, before seeing Koji and Sora with him. "Sora? When did you get here? I thought Koda, Hagakure and I..."

"Koji sent a friend to find me. Good thing I found you when I did." The Keyblade wielder said. "You looked like you were in bad shape."

"Getting buried under rubble will do that to you sometimes." Shoji replied, before looking at his silent classmate. "It's good to know that you're okay, Koda. Now we need to find Hagakure and the others."

"I already found Toru." Sora told him. "I told her how to get back to the center staircase, where Yuga is waiting. I'll take you guys back there, then I'll go look for the others."

"It wouldn't be a good idea to go on your own, Sora." Mezo pointed out. "I'd suggest that you at least let me come with you. My quirk would be useful in an area like this."

"That's not a bad idea actually." The Keyblade wielder realized. "Okay. Then let's get back to the center stairway and then you and I can go look for the others, together."

After clearing the way enough for the larger two students to fit through the hole that Sora came from, the pair followed the Keyblade wielder as he backtracked to the center staircase. There, they saw Aoyama and Hagakure, the latter of the two seeing her comrades. "Shoji! Koda!" she called out.

Koji waved at his classmate while Mezo spoke on their behalf. "We're alright, Hagakure. It's good to see that you're still doing well."

"Thanks to you pushing me out of harm's way." She pointed out. "Sorry that I couldn't find you."

"It's alright. What matters is that we're all still able to move." Shoji stated. "Speaking of moving. Sora, which direction are we moving to?"

"We?" Toru repeated. "Are you going with Sora?"

"His quirk could help out in this situation." The Keyblade wielder pointed out. "And I was thinking of going west next."

"If I remember correctly, that was the direction that Sero, Mineta and Ojiro had gone." Mezo stated.

"Yeah. They'd have a hard time getting around this area, without someone like you or Kyouka with them." Sora said.

"And since Jiro and Ashido are part of the other group, their odds of maneuvering around and getting back here on their own are better than Sero's group." Shoji noted.

"Yeah. Plus I'm pretty sure that Hanta and Mashirao would have had enough of Minoru's whining at this point." Sora added, earning a light chuckle from the others.

"I can see that." Mezo didn't deny that possibility. "Then let's not keep them waiting."

"Alright." The Keyblade wielder said, traveling west with Shoji and beginning their search for more of their classmates.

"There he goes." Hagakure said. "Being a hero."

"It's what he does." Aoyama pointed out.

"It's what we're supposed to be doing too." Toru added.

Koji didn't need to see her face to know what she meant, but before the invisible girl could run off in the direction that Jiro's team went, he spoke up. "My little friends." A few rats that were nearby had stopped what they were doing and heeded his call. "South of where I am, there are friends of mine who have lost their way. I need help finding them. Please assist me in finding my friends. If you find them, please help guide them to us."

As the nearby rats headed off to the south, Hagakure ended up hugging her softly spoken classmate. "And your quirk is coming in clutch once again, Koda."

[Silence]

Elsewhere in the building, Hanta, Mashirao and Minoru were sitting together, staying put. Sero was the first to speak up. "Well this sucks."

"Tell me about it." Mineta agreed. "This was supposed to be easy. Run in, find the citizen, get out. Now we're trapped underground and have no way to call for help!"

"Well, we still have to do those last two things." Ojiro pointed out. "But we also have to be more careful. Who knows when this building will break down any further."

"Are you crazy, Ojiro?!" Minoru spoke up. "This place is a death trap, and you want us to go deeper into it?! We should wait for the teachers to rescue us."

"The only teacher here is All Might, and he can't do that anymore." Hanta pointed out. "And we're in a computer generated zone. The other teachers aren't here to save us."

"Then why hasn't that tiny tech guy, Moogle pulled us out?" Mineta wondered.

"There's probably still a chance for us to complete this exercise, and we just don't know how to yet." Mashirao guessed.

That answer got Sero to get up and get ready to move. "If that's the case, then we shouldn't be sitting around. The least we can do is try to make our way back to the center and see if anyone else made it there as well."

"Good idea." Ojiro agreed with that. "Hopefully the path back wasn't damaged too much."

Minoru looked at his two partners like they were nuts, but he ultimately complied and followed Mashirao and Hanta as they began to backtrack.

[Play KH Re:Chain of Memories OST The 13th Floor]

In another section of the building, Kyouka opened her eyes and pushed herself to her feet. "Ugh..." She groaned and held her head for a moment before regaining her bearings and looking around. She saw that the area around her was in bad condition. Debris was blocking off all of the halls around her, and some of the floor had collapsed, making holes in the floor that she could not see the bottom of. She then saw Rikido struggling to hold up some debris in front of him. She spoke up. "Sato?"

The sugar powered boy heard his classmate. "Jiro? Hey, help me get Ashido out of this!" Once he said that, Kyouka had noticed Mina in front of him, underneath the debris that Rikido was struggling to keep off of her. The sound based student rushed over and grabbed her pink skinned classmate, dragging her out from under the debris that Sato was holding, before he finally let go and backed away from the debris. "Thanks. I don't know how much longer I could have held that."

"No problem." Jiro said to Rikido, before turning her attention back to their unconscious partner. "Ashido. You good?" No response. She plugged her earphone jack into one of Mina's ears and felt a pulse. "She's still alive and breathing. She's out cold though. You got anything that could wake her up in those pouches, Sato?"

"No. Sorry." The sugar powered boy answered. "So what do we do?"

Kyouka thought about something and cringed, before speaking to her fellow female student. "Hope you don't get too mad at me, Ashido." She then did what she would normally reserve for Minoru and occasionally Denki, and blasted her friend's ear.

"GYAHH!" The sudden experience of auditory overdose woke her up instantly and painfully. "Augh! OW!"

"Sorry!" Jiro bowed and apologized again. "I needed to get you back up."

"Eugh...did that have to be so intense though?" Mina complained.

"Sorry." Kyouka apologized once more.

"It's ok." Ashido forgave her. "So what happened?"

"Parts of the building collapsed all around us and we're stuck in here." Rikido told her.

"Hold on. We're not stuck." Mina said. "I could use my acid and melt through the rubble."

"She's not wrong there." Jiro agreed with her. "It'd be best to backtrack the way we came from...um, if anyone remembers where we came from."

"I do." Sato said, before pointing to the debris that Ashido was previously trapped under. "It was this way."

"You sure?" Kyouka asked.

"Positive." Rikido was sure of it.

"Ok then. I'll get started on making a path." Ashido got up, walked over to the rubble and started secreting acid from her hands, placing them on the debris and slowly began to melt through it. "This might take a minute, so sit tight."

Back with Sora and Mezo, the pair continued heading west, encountering a few blocked off paths, but eventually finding their ways around and getting back on course. While the AR device Sora had on was keeping track of all the dead ends they encountered, as well as tracing the path that they took to get to where they currently were at the moment. As the pair continued forward, Sora looked at the full map of the building via his AR device, and he noticed something. "Hmm. Hey, it looks like we're close to the backup generators."

"How close are we?" Shoji wondered.

"If we take a right on the next hall, and there's no debris blocking our path, we'll be in the section where the generators should be." The Keyblade wielder stated.

"Then let's hope that there's no debris." Mezo replied, following his partner as they reached the next hall and turned right.

[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST I Don't Need Pretend Friends]

The pair then continued forward, until something blocked their path. "Well, it's not debris, but this is still obstructing our path." Shoji commented. The two were greeted with closed security shutters. The dupli armed student went to the shutters and attempted to lift them, only for it to not budge. "Locked. We might have to bust our way through."

"Or, we can unlock it." Sora summoned the Kingdom Key, and shot out his beam of light at the shutters. After it made contact, the shutters briefly glowed, then made a clicking sound. Sora then unsummoned his weapon and both he and Mezo pulled the shutters up and opened up their path. "Alright. Now where would the backup generators be at?"

"Let's look for the area with the least damage. It would stand to reason that the most fortified section would be where the backup generators would be." Shoji pointed out.

"That's good to know." The Keyblade wielder commented, before looking around and spotting an area with minimal damage. "Over there then?"

"That area does lack any significant damage." Mezo noted, before the two of them went over to that section and soon enough found a room that was full of electrical devices and a few breaker boxes. "This is it alright."

"Good. Now how do we turn this on without frying everything?" Sora wondered. "I don't want to use my Thunder unless absolutely necessary."

The two of them looked around the room, before Shoji spotted an instruction manual of how to operate the consoles here. "This will certainly be useful." He began to flip through the pages until he found what he needed. "Okay there's three ways we can go about this. First, we could try a reset, by turning all the switches off and back on again in the breaker boxes. Secondly, we could find a spare battery that could help get it up for a little while. And lastly, we could try jump starting it, which would require your Thunder, Sora."

"Let's start with the first one you mentioned." The Keyblade wielder said. "If that doesn't work, and we can't find another battery, then we'll jump start it."

"Understood." Mezo was fine with that. Then he and Sora got to work, opening up the breaker boxes and flipping the switches, having everything that was currently switched on, to off. After they did that, Sora went over to the generator and had that shut off too. He then flipped it back on after a moment while Shoji reset the circuit power by pressing the button assigned to it. The two of them then heard the generator begin to hum and power up. "Looks like it worked."

"Alright. Let's light up the place. Make it easier for everyone to see." Sora suggested. Mezo nodded, agreeing with that idea.

Back with Hanta's group, the three of them had continued to wander through the halls, carefully watching their steps, until suddenly, the lights came on where they were at. "What?" the tape user was surprised.

"The power's back." Mashirao realized.

"Great! Now we can see more than three feet in front of us again!" Minoru cheered, before noticing debris blocking their original route they took. "Only to show our hopes get crushed."

"There's more than one way back to the center, Mineta." Sero pointed out. "We'll just need to find one."

"How about through there?" Ojiro pointed to a hall to their left that had an opening. "It looks clear."

[Silence]

Back with Sora and Shoji, the dupli armed student heard that last comment. "Sora. I think I just heard Ojiro."

"Where?" The Keyblade wielder asked.

"In the direction we came from." Mezo stated.

"Go see if you can find them while I get the rest of the lights on." Sora instructed.

"Got it." Shoji left the backup generator room and headed back to where he and Sora entered. He then immediately called out "Ojiro!"

Mashirao heard that from where he was. "Shoji? Was that you, Shoji?!"

"Yeah!" Mezo answered from where he was, while moving towards where he heard his classmate. "Are Sero and Mineta still with you?!"

The other two heard that, and Hanta spoke up next. "Yeah! We're all together!"

"Where are you, Shoji?!" Minoru wondered.

"I'm coming to you! I think I'm almost there!" Mezo stated.

"We won't move until we see you, Shoji!" Sero said.

"We'll keep talking to you until you can find us!" Ojiro added.

"Please hurry!" Mineta requested.

After a moment of searching, Mezo had turned a corner and the three of them could see him, and vice versa. "There you are."

The three students reached their classmate and Hanta spoke first. "Nice to see someone else besides us, Shoji."

"Weren't you with Hagakure and Koda? Where are they?" Mashirao pointed out.

"We were found by Sora and made our way back to the center stairwell, before he and I came looking for you three." Mezo explained.

"Wait, then where's Sora?" Minoru questioned, not seeing the Keyblade wielder with them.

"He's turning on the rest of the lights. We had found the backup generator and just got it working. I'll take you to him, and when he's done, we can head back to the center stairwell." Shoji said, before taking point and backtracking towards the backup generator room with the other three in tow.

[Play KH 2.5 Remix OST Reviving Hollow Bastion]

Back with Kyouka's group, the lights had come on in their area and she commented on it. "Looks like the power's back on."

"That's a relief." Rikido said. "We'll be able to see a lot clearer ahead of us."

"Perfect timing because I'm...just...about...finished!" Mina said as she melted a bit enough opening through the debris blocking their path. "You two ready to go?"

Jiro and Sato nodded and followed Ashido through her opening. As the three of them began to backtrack, they heard some speaking up ahead, then Kyouka saw what it was coming from. "Looks like some rats scurrying around."

Mina then noticed something. "Um...they're all scurrying towards us." Once the rats reached them, some of them circled around them, while others stopped in front of them, which caught them all by surprise. "That's new."

"You think maybe Koda sent these?" Rikido guessed, remembering that Koji was part of their team.

"I wouldn't doubt it." Jiro replied, before seeing the rats begin to scurry back the way they came.

"They're heading back the way they went?" The Pink skinned girl questioned.

"Probably to show us the way back." Kyouka realized. "Sato, Ashido, let's not lose them." Both of her classmates agreed with her and the three began to follow the rats through the ruined halls of the underground building.

Back with Sora, he just finished flipping on all the light switches and decided to leave it at that. He didn't want to risk overloading the generator with any more power that wouldn't be necessary. Once he exited the room, he saw Mezo come back with three more classmates with him. "Mashirao, Hanta, Minoru, it's good to see you guys are ok."

"Likewise, Sora." Ojiro responded.

"Thanks for coming to look for us though, and restoring the power." Sero said.

"Now we just gotta get back to the others and get out of here." Mineta stated.

"After, we find the citizen." The Keyblade wielder pointed out. "Unless you guys already found and got them out?"

"No. We didn't see the citizen on the way here." Mashirao responded.

"Then we have to take care of that first." Sora said.

"I don't think any of that will matter if we don't have a surefire safe way back up to the surface." Hanta pointed out. "We all agreed to meet back up at the center stairwell, but I seriously doubt that a part of it wasn't destroyed, or at least damaged enough to be hazardous."

"He does have a point there, Sora." Shoji felt inclined to agree with his tape making classmate. "Even when we regroup, we'll still need to find a safe way to evacuate this place, before we can even consider leaving."

"I'm with Shoji on this." Minoru agreed as well. "We should find a safe path to escape before doing anything else."

"How about after we all regroup at the center stairwell?" Sora suggested. "At least then, everyone will be on the same page." The four of them agreed with that. "Alright then. Let's head back. I know how to get there." He took point.

Back with Yuga, Koji and Toru, the three of them were sitting together at the staircase, already knowing that progress was being made on somebody else's end when the lights came back on. At this point, Hagakure was feeling a little useless. "Isn't there anything we can do while we wait for the others to come back?"

"Sora said to stay here and wait for everyone to be back together before doing anything else." Aoyama pointed out, though he was also beginning to feel useless.

After a while of more waiting, the trio then heard a familiar squeaking sound, as well as some footsteps coming from the south. The three of them perked up and focused their attention in that direction. They then saw some rats scurry towards them, and not too far behind, were three familiar faces that Toru called out when she saw them. "Jiro! Sato! Ashido!"

"Hagakure!" Mina called back before reaching her invisible friend and giving her a hug.

Kyouka noticed Koda and spoke to him. "Came to my rescue again, ey? That's two I owe you." Recalling when he carried her to safety after the data Demyx had injured her legs back during the practicals, to which the animal themed boy remembered, and got embarrassed.

"Hey, Aoyama." Rikido noticed him. "Weren't you with Sora, where's he?"

"He went with Shoji to go find Sero's group." Yuga answered. "We were told to wait here, on the off chance that you three would come back here."

"I guess it was one of them that restored the power then." Jiro noted. "Ok. So I'm guessing that you guys already checked the center stairwell to see if it's still clear, and now we're just waiting for the others to come back?"

The awkward silence coming from Aoyama and Hagakure had answered her question. "Wait, you guys didn't do that?" Ashido was confused.

"Sora said to stay put and watch for anyone who comes here." Yuga repeated.

"Only one of you needs to do that though." Sato pointed out. "Someone else could have started climbing up to see if the stairs were still usable, and if not, they could have come back down and said so."

"In hindsight, that probably would have been a good idea." Toru realized.

"Maybe Sora intended to go himself?" Aoyama guessed. "He's the fastest in the group and very light on his feet. He could quickly move up without risking any damage to the structure."

The others there were actually surprised that their French classmate was able to think of that before the rest of them could, but regardless. The point made was still valid. And at this time, it would honestly be a waste to start trekking up the stairs, when Sora would probably be back any minute with the rest of the group. So they opted to just wait there for them. That is, until they noticed water beginning to flow down the staircase.

[Silence]

Back with Sora's group, the boys continued backtracking their way towards the others, but then, Minoru noticed something. "Huh? Hey, guys! Look over there." He pointed towards a large section of rubble, but there looked to be something else there as well.

As the others looked at it, they realized what it was. "That's the citizen we needed to find!" Mashirao realized.

"We must have not seen him, because it was too dark when we came this way." Mezo guessed.

"Well, let's get that rubble off the citizen and then get back to the group." Sora used his flowmotion to reach the citizen's location, and then began to move the rubble away, piece by piece. Hanta used his tape to fling himself up there and join, while the others began to climb up to help as well.

[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST Brawl]

Shoji then heard cracks, then a collapse from a distance along with waterflow, which made him stop and speak up. "I just heard waterflow. This floor might be starting to flood."

"What?!" Mineta began to lose his cool again.

"We'll have to forget doing this slowly." Mashirao stated. "Sora, be ready to take the citizen and move! I'm gonna strike the debris away with all my strength! Then we'll pull out!"

"What about after that!?" Hanta questioned what the plan would be after that. "Do we have any time to look for any ways out?!" At this point, water began to enter the room they were in.

"We'll regroup and make our own way out!" Sora answered Sero's question before getting ready. "Whenever you're ready, Mashirao!"

Ojiro quickly got into position, and then propelled himself up towards the trapped citizen with his tail, before using said tail to knock off the debris on top of them. Sora then grabbed the citizen, and as more rubble began to fall from the ceiling, Sora used his flowmotion while Hanta and Mashirao slid down towards Mineta and Shoji. "Let's move it! Back to the others!" Mezo said, before the five of them moved as fast as they could back the way they came.

Over with the others, the group by the stairwell, had also realized the rather unpleasant situation they were in. "This is bad!" Mina spoke up. "We'll drown down here if we don't get back up!"

"The water is leaking from the center stairwell, so that route clearly isn't safe. We need to move now!" Toru stated.

"Where do we go?!" Yuga questioned.

"We head south and regroup with Sora!" Rikido suggested. "Once we're all together, we can work on getting out of here!" Koji nodded in agreement with that idea.

"Then let's go!" Kyouka took point and the six of them moved south, going as fast as they could towards Sora's location.

It didn't take long for the two groups to converge, and once they did, Sora spoke up. "What the? Why are you guys...?!"

"The stairs began to flood, so that way is a no go." Jiro explained.

"All other paths are blocked off from where we came from." Shoji explained.

[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST Yuga Aoyama]

The water level had reached the group's knees at this point, and it was still rising. "We can't afford to wade around here, looking for a safe exit." Aoyama pointed out. "It's time to make our own!" He leaned his body back enough for his arms and head to go into the rising water, in order to angle his stomach to aim his Naval laser directly above the group, before blasting a hole through the ceiling with a strong naval laser. His head and arms then emerged from the water and he was glad that his efforts didn't make the whole building collapse.

"That was risky!" Mineta pointed out.

"It paid off though!" Sora added. "Thanks Yuga!" He then thought of something. "Alright, I have an idea. This is gonna be crazy, and very dangerous, but if it works, we'll all be out of here in less than a minute!"

"I don't see any better options, so just tell us what to do!" Jiro was open to suggestions.

Sora then summoned Oathkeeper and then twirled it around, creating sparkles that soon took the shape of a door, that soon brought out train tracks and a small two seater locomotive, along with multiple two seater train carts attached to it. He summoned the Mountain Coaster attraction. "Hop on and hang on! Yuga, Rikido, you two are in the front to help blast through the ceilings! Hanta, Mezo, you two are in the back, just in case anyone falls out and they need to be caught!"

The class had mixed reactions, of surprise and confusion, but they would ask Sora about this AFTER they get out of this crisis. The group did as instructed and boarded the train. And with no time to spare, Sora immediately began moving. Making tracks that will go directly up the opening that Aoyama made, and continue going up. The first ceiling was passed through and the next one rapidly approached. "Yuga!"

"Yes!" Aoyama used his naval laser once again, firing through the window of the locomotive while Sato made sure he didn't fall while he stood up. The ceiling above was blasted through once more, allowing them to reach the next floor. At this point, the entire building was beginning to collapse from the commotion, which prompted the others to make sure that they didn't fall off. Minoru had popped off some of his hair balls and tossed them to the others to use to keep them on there. As the third floor ceiling was coming up, Yuga was already ready. "No building is strong enough to contain my shine!" He blasted another hole, but his laser wasn't as strong as this time.

The hole that resulted was not as large, and when the Mountain Coaster reached it, it collided and shook up the students a bit when it broke through. But it also made Sora lose his grip on the citizen he was carrying. "Oh no!"

The other students tried reaching for it, but couldn't as it flew past them. However, one student literally jumped out of her seat and managed to grab it. Toru, who had left her glove stuck to her seat with the sticky ball, had been the one to do so. "Somebody catch meeeee!" She screamed. Nearly falling back down, only to be caught by the two in the back. "Shoji! Sero! Thanks!"

The fourth floor ceiling was about to be reached and Sora spoke up. "Yuga, Incoming!"

Aoyama mustered up the rest of his strength and created another big enough hole to get the Mountain Coaster through, but his stomach now began to cramp. "Eugh! I shined...too bright on that last one!"

"That's why I had Rikido as a backup!" The Keyblade wielder reminded him. "But you still did great, Yuga! All Might and the other teachers will be proud!" The fifth and final ceiling was approaching them. "You're up now!"

"Gotcha!" Sato had already ingested enough sugar to buff himself up for this, and he pounced out of the cart he was in, and ahead of the locomotive. He then screamed out of top of his lungs, "PLUS ULTRA, SUGAR RUUUUSH!" He then sent out a flurry of punches that had managed to break through the final ceiling, and even the concrete above it, making the opening that the team needed to get out. As Rikido fell down, he felt two sticky balls tag him in the back and then stopped falling, when those balls were grabbed by Mashirao and Mina.

"Nice, save, Mineta!" Ojiro complimented.

"Good job!" Ashido added.

"Come on come on come on come on come on!" Sora said on repeat, as his energy was about to run out. But right as he hit his limit, the Mountain Coaster erupted through the opening made and Sora redirected it to move down towards the street. "Yes!" He cheered before making the train slow down and stop. Once the Coaster stopped moving, he let it dissipate back into sparkles that quickly burned out.

[Silence]

The group members all looked at eachother, each of them taking a breather from that sudden adrenaline rush. But once they caught their breath, they heard clapping from close by.

[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST You Can Be A Hero]

The clapping came from Toshinori, who approached the group and congratulated them. "You went into danger, got the citizen out of harm's way, made sure that nobody was left behind, and you all managed to escape from the mall before it could flood you all in."

"So the flooding was part of the exercise?" Mezo realized.

"Of course. Everything here was planned. The building being unstable and falling apart slowly, the power outage, the flooding, all of it." Yagi confirmed. "This test was meant to be as much of a challenge as we could possibly make it for first years. Because the license exam will be just as, if not more challenging than this. So if you could make it through here, then you'd all have what it takes to earn your license and work with the Pro Heroes. Any of you that didn't think you had it in you before would have had to go beyond their limits, and truly embrace that Plus Ultra motto that we encourage." He looked at the students. "Judging by your conditions, some of you did exactly that. So if you weren't ready before, you definitely are now."

The students each took a moment to let that sink in, and once it did, they all felt proud. Sure, this was a training exercise, but in the end, they did what they set out to do. They saved a citizen and escaped a crisis situation, leaving nobody behind. They had enough skills, and now enough confidence, to be real Heroes. Now, all they needed was the license that would permit them to be one.

Been a while, huh? Well I'm back, after helping out other people with their issues and also learning that I'm going to have a niece soon. (Was hoping for a nephew because the male name sounded cooler, but I'm an Uncle either way.) I'm excited that it's happening, but also dreading when the baby is born. I'm probably going to be interrupted by crying a lot come March. Anyways, Do or Die Survival training is done. As you read, I assigned Sora to team B, insteadof A, which meant that I had to make this chapter do the same events as the actual two episodes went, but I had to do it with the otherclassmates, and still make it interesting. Since the datascape exists, making the exact situation happen in a different place was not a problem, and also, it gave me plenty of creative freedom, since we never saw team B's training, and you know me enough to know that I like writing what the other groups would do, and I also try to not have Sora always be with the main groups, so they have their times to shine. I hope you guys enjoyedthis chapter and until I decide to upload again ;)