A/N: Alright, it's a new phase, which means new challenges for Kai! Let's see how he handles the next series of trials that life has in store for him...

Also for those of you who have been wondering when he'll finally kick the bucket... Well, I won't tell you outright, but let's just say that I've begun a countdown of sorts. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you might have a clue as to what I'm talking about. If not, oh well. Good luck trying to figure it out!

Now, onto the story!

Prior Stories:

Your Hero Academia: Evolution

Your Hero Academia: Survival

Crash Course

Kurai grunted as he finished tightening the last fastener that held his new arm in place, still not used to the sensation of his nerves being connected to the inanimate appendage after he had finished tuning it. His doctor had told him that the initial discomfort would likely always persist, but it was still by far and away more preferable to the phantom pains that had been plaguing him since he'd lost his original limb. As he sent a small portion of his power into his brother's invention to reconnect his mind to it, he felt the metal fingers responding to his commands without flaw or hesitation.

Akarui outdid himself with this one, Kurai thought as he moved toward his closet to retrieve his school uniform. His hero costume's briefcase was already set out on the bed, as he had been informed that he would need it for today's hero course studies. As he moved to put on his shirt and tie, he reflected on how he had originally thought that he might feel more apprehensive about using the replacement, but it moved so well that any inhibitions that he had once possessed were banished from his mind. Other than the fact that the metal couldn't register tactile contact or feel any kind of pain, it felt almost like the real thing.

He heard a knock at his door, so he finished buttoning up his collar before calling out, "Come in."

"Hey," Mina said as she opened the door and stepped inside before shutting the entrance behind her. "How're you feeling today?"

"Better than I expected," he answered with an easy smile. "No pain, no nightmares, and I'm ready to get back to practical exercises instead of just spamming rocks and Ectoplasm clones with energy blasts."

"You sure?" she asked him a little worriedly. "It's not too soon? You said that your body feels fine, but…" She tapped the side of her own head a little awkwardly as she added, "How're you doing up there?" It had become a habit of hers' to check on his mental well-being every morning that she could ever since he had scared her with his self-harming episode.

"Same as the rest of me," he answered, though his smile did wilt a little bit as he thought of his fallen father and his silent mother. "Mom hasn't returned any of my calls yet, so that definitely bites, but there's not much I can do about it. I think a distraction in the form of a rescue exercise is just what I need right now."

"I thought you said that those were kind of your weak point?" his girlfriend inquired. "I wouldn't be psyched out if we had a big math test coming up right after I'd gotten out of a hospital from a major surgery."

"You know I'd help you out if that was the case, right?" Kurai chuckled as he finished doing up the tie around his neck and set about straightening his collar.

"I know, and I love you for it," Mina answered with a smile as she moved behind him and brushed his fingers aside. "Let me get this."

"Thanks," he said as he lowered his arms and let her straighten out the shirt for him. "How are you doing, by the way? Still mad at me for the disappearing act?"

"It's been a few days, and you've said you were sorry, plus I'm too worried to be mad at you," she admitted as she patted him on the back, apparently having finished her work with his uniform. "I know the doctors cleared you to come back, and you've been doing well with the physical training, but I just hope that whatever today's test is doesn't push you too hard, you know?"

"Hey," he said as he turned around and gripped her hands with his. He was a little puzzled when she shivered and pulled her left hand out of his right one, but he had more important things on his mind at that moment. "I'll be okay no matter what the test is today, promise. After all, I'll have my plus-ultra girlfriend looking out for me, right?"

"Yeah," she nodded, though her smile was still an uneasy one. "Just… Promise you'll stay by me? I kinda need to make sure that you won't just up and disappear on me again."

"For sure," he said as he pulled her in close for a loving embrace. "I'm not going anywhere again- at least, not without you."

Mina, in spite of herself, smiled a little bit and nodded into his shoulder as she relished in the feeling of having him close to her, unharmed and once again whole. Well, as whole as he's going to get, she thought with another shudder as she felt his mechanical arm grip her shoulders.

The day's test had class 1-A split in half, somewhat to Kurai's disappointment, though he supposed it could have been much worse. At least this way he would have friends by his side in the unlikely event that his arm malfunctioned.

While he was disappointed to see Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida, and Yaoyorozu being put on the other team for a collapsed underground mall rescue, he was much gladder to have Mina by his side for the exercise. Also in their group were Aoyama, Ojiro, Koda, Sato, Shoji, Jiro, Sero, Hagakure, Schnee, and Belladonna, all of them with the goal to rescue a training dummy from a train wreck that had occurred beneath the city.

The scenario depicted a single civilian as being trapped in the rubble of the train itself, which was buried beneath the streets and buildings that had been on top of and near the crash site. A villain's plan had gone awry, and while the other heroes were able to take him out of the picture, there was still an innocent person possibly being crushed by the debris around them. The accident had apparently proven bad enough that normal emergency services couldn't get to the person, so they needed the help of heroes to reach them. Another issue presented to the hero team was that the original path to the civilian was now collapsed, meaning that they needed to find a new way into the tunnel network.

"There's also the possibility that the person trapped inside is trying to find their own way out," Kurai mused as their team began to go over their briefing. "I doubt that they could make it very far if the damage was as severe as we're being told, but it's still possible. After all, they might have a quirk that helped them at least get partway out of the wreckage." He was standing in front of a map of the underground system that had been provided by one of the emergency responders (in this case, one Shota Aizawa and Recovery Girl), while the others had gathered around him to study the same piece.

"I doubt that," Weiss responded, though in a much less harsh tone than Kurai would have expected. "If they had a power that could help them, I doubt that the first responders would have called for our assistance." She had been named leader of their group, but so far she seemed content to let the others speak their observations.

"Good point," Kurai acknowledged as he continued to study the map.

Blake now spoke up to say, "I see four ways we could make it to the crash site, but that's assuming they aren't totally blocked by debris."

"And if those of us with offensive powers start punching and blasting our way through, we could end up causing a worse cave-in," Sato added ponderously. "Man, this is harder than I thought it would be."

"It wouldn't be Mister Aizawa's class otherwise," Sero snickered.

"We'd work best if we split up into groups of three," Weiss announced as she stepped away from the wall with the map, her chin in her hand. "Ideally, we would all stick together for support, but the person we're supposed to save doesn't have time for us to waste on running into the wrong tunnel. All of you, take a picture of the map with your phones for reference, and keep them handy for contact in case you find a way in, or better yet, a civilian."

"About that…" Hagakure said as her phone hovered in the air with the screen aimed at her friends. "I'm not getting a signal right now."

"What?" Weiss asked worriedly as she checked her own device. "Drat!"

"I guess in this scenario, the cell towers must've been hit," Jiro muttered as she put her phone away. "I should be able to hear anyone calling for backup if they find the civilian, but that won't help anyone not in my group."

"I can send animals to show people where to go, if my group finds them," Koda volunteered timidly. "There are sure to be plenty of rats and other small critters that I can get to help us."

"I'm not as good at picking up on soft sounds like Jiro, but I can compensate with extra ears to listen for anything out of the ordinary," Shoji added.

"Good ideas, all of you," Weiss said approvingly. "Unfortunately, that still leaves a team without means of communications."

"Yeah, my scouter won't work as a com device without a signal," Kurai said with a negative shake of his head before anyone could ask him. "I could tune it to a short-distance radio wave if we had walkie-talkies, but we don't have Yaoyorozu to make us any. It'll still work as a map since I already have the schematics of the training grounds already downloaded, but I can't call for help with it."

"Double drat," Weiss huffed. "I suppose if nothing else, you can yell for help. Even with the rubble in the way, we should be able to hear one another with the tunnels bouncing the sounds off the walls."

"That'll just make it hard to tell where the sound is coming from," Sero pointed out with a frown. "I think it might be safer to meet back here at a designated time. If one or more of our groups don't show up by then, we can send another team to help them out."

"That might also help us save some time if one group did find the civilian, but lacked the necessary skillset to get them out safely," Weiss mused. "Okay, let's meet back here in an hour if we don't see each other in the tunnels. Form up and head out as I call you. Aoyama, Hagakure, and Ojiro, I want you to head for the southeast entrance. Blake, go with Koda and Sato to the south entry. I'll go to the west with Sero and Shoji. Hikari, you and Ashido should go with Jiro to the north, just up the road. If there's any problems with your prosthetic, I want you to evacuate immediately. We don't need this practice rescue to turn into a real one, got it?"

"Got it," Kurai said, actively resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the girl. I'm not an invalid that needs looking after, he grumbled internally. Still, he held his tongue out of respect for his teacher's decision to put Schnee in charge of their team. At least now she has a chance to show us why she made into her school on recommendations.

Her strategy was a sound one, and she had managed to divide their teams with pretty equal skillsets- one heavy hitter power, one mid-range quirk, and one ability that could be called miscellaneous to each group. They had a plan that seemed pretty feasible, and perhaps more importantly, one that they were all able to agree on. The only issue that Kurai could think up was…

"What if for some reason we all find ourselves unable to make it back in time for the rendezvous?" he asked before they could all head out. "What should we do then?"

Weiss looked irritated at having another objection, but she knew that it wasn't going to do her strategy any favors to ignore a major flaw like the one he had just brought up. To that end, she answered, "I don't really know. If there's one thing I've learned in my time with Team RWBY, it's that things hardly ever go according to plan. One has to possess some flexibility in our line of work, so if things go wrong, this will be a good chance to exercise your individual intellects."

"Well, we're screwed," Sato grumbled.

"Tell me about it," Ojiro agreed.

Kurai simply shrugged in response- after all, she was right. They couldn't stand around all day trying to plan for every possible outcome. There were sure to be factors that they had not been informed of, and therefore could not take into account when thinking ahead.

"Now, if we're quite done talking, we should get a move on," Weiss said as she began to walk away. "The citizen needs a hero, people- let's give them one."

Aoyama's group made their way into the subway by using one of the stairwells that had been left relatively undamaged by the accident. It was about a half-kilometer from where the train had supposedly derailed, but with how fast the vehicle would have been running, it was likely much closer to them than that.

"Aoyama, will you be able to give us a light without blasting a hole in the walls?" Ojiro asked as they began their descent into the dark. "I'm not sure that our phone lights will be enough, plus it'll be awkward to carry them and move any rubble that's in the way."

"Non, not without hurting my tummy," the flamboyant hero-in-training replied with a definitive shake of his head.

"I got you guys!" Hagakure informed them as they stepped into the ruins of a subway station. "Check it out!" Her body suddenly shimmered with a myriad of colors that stunned her teammates and lit up the wreckage around them. "I can't do it for a super long time, and it doesn't work well when there's not a lot of light, but if you guys shine your phones at me, I can make wherever we are a lot brighter!" She let the lights die down while Ojiro was nodding with approval.

"That's really cool, Hagakure," he told her, causing the girl to giggle happily.

Meanwhile, Aoyama looked a little put off, and somewhat worried. "This mademoiselle is attempting to steal my twinkling," he murmured to himself. "No matter- my sparkle will always shine through in the end!"

"What was that, Aoyama?"

"Nothing, monsieur!"

With that, the trio headed into the dark of the subway, having no idea the dangers that awaited them in its depths.

Sato heaved on the heavy metal grate that allowed the teenagers access into the faux city's maintenance tunnels, one of which would come out near the wreck they needed to investigate. As he set the obstruction aside, Koda peeked his head into the opening and called out, "Hello? Are there any rats down there?" Blake and Sato heard nothing, but Koda nodded after a few moments and then said, "Can you please show us the way to the train wreck? It should have happened not too long ago."

After another quiet moment, he pulled back and looked up at his teammates. "They'll help us get where we need to go," he informed them.

"Taking directions from rats," Blake said with a slight shudder. "I never saw myself doing this back in the States."

"They won't hurt us as long as we don't scare them or try to shoo them away," Koda promised. "They'll also let us know if there are any snake or spider nests that we're getting close to."

"Snakes?" Blake paused as she began to climb down the ladder. "You sure this is a good idea?"

"Koda's great with animals," Sato assured her. "Even if there are some bad things down there, he can convince them to leave us alone, right?"

"Shouldn't be a problem, unless they think that we're responsible for the collapse in the tunnels," the quiet student answered.

"I could've done without that last part," Blake said with a shudder as she descended into the hole.

Weiss' team was the first to encounter an obstruction in their chosen path. They had just gotten down into another maintenance tunnel when they found the passage blocked with fallen rubble mixed with water, likely from sewer pipes if the smell was anything to go by.

"That stench is just for practice, right?" Weiss said as she wrinkled her nose while Shoji started using his many arms to seek out a way through the debris. "There's not actually… stuff in there, right?"

"I mean, it's not like people actually live in these buildings or use the toilets," Sero commented while he and the albino girl stayed behind their muscular teammate.

"Oh, good."

"On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure that UA's plumbing system doesn't run all the way over here, too…"

"Gross!"

"Good thing we have a walking flashlight with an infinite power source," Jiro grinned as she and Mina walked on either side of Kurai, who was holding a mid-sized ball of energon in his mechanical hand that cast a glow bright enough to illuminate a good portion of the surrounding subway tunnel. They were approaching the wreck from the opposite end of the tunnel that Ojiro's team would be taking, and since their entrance was closer, it meant less walking for them.

However, as the train had been northbound, there was likely a great deal more rubble between them and their target than the others', which was of course why the team with three of the most offensive quirks had been sent to deal with it. If any of them were going to make it to their destination from that route in a timely manner, it was going to be them.

As they walked, Kurai was now grinning at his teammate as he held up his sword with his free hand and said, "I've got a spare if one of you needs it."

"Dibs," Mina said before Jiro could give an answer.

"Hey, no fair!" the other girl complained. "Your quirk can cut through stuff no problem, you don't need his lightsaber!"

"But I called dibs."

"She did call it," Kurai nodded, his grin widening slightly. He had been missing this- working hard alongside his friends, even if it was just in a practice test to get them ready for the provisional license exam. Normal school stuff was exactly what he needed after weeks of fighting for his life, dealing with major invasive surgeries, mourning for his broken family, and several other things besides. For now, at least, he could just keep his mind occupied with the rigorous regime of UA High.

He was brought out of his thoughts when they came upon a mound of rocks and metal that completely filled the tunnel in front of them. "Looks like this mission is off to a rock-solid start," he joked, causing his teammates to roll their eyes.

"You've been hanging out with Xiao Long too much," Mina told him as she moved closer to the pile. "Can I get the light over here?"

"Sure." As Kurai moved to a better angle for her to examine the rubble, Jiro plugged her auxiliary jacks into some of the bigger pieces of concrete and began to listen intently. When both girls stayed quiet for nearly a minute, he then asked, "How's it look?"

"This rubble seems to be pretty stable," Jiro told him as she pulled back. "I'm not hearing much in the way of moving pieces in there, but we'll still need to be careful moving forward. I think Mina's acid should be able to clear a path through part of it, anyway."

"I think I've found a crawlspace that I can widen a little," Mina told them as she stepped back from the pile that she had been studying. "I can see a relatively clear bit not too far on the other side of this part of the collapse."

"Lead the way," Kurai said as he stepped back. "Just don't melt any more than we need to. I don't wanna risk a collapse." Turning back to look at Jiro, he added, "Both of you should stick close to me- makes it easier to shield you from falling rubble if something goes wrong."

"Hey, I'm right here," Mina said with a devilish grin as she looked over at Kurai and Jiro. "Don't go trying to get cozy with another girl on me, buster."

"That's not-!" Kurai smacked himself as he realized that he had walked into a trap. It was good thing that his right hand was holding their main light source, otherwise he likely would have wound up hitting his face with the metal.

"Mina!" Jiro said at nearly the same time while she blushed hard enough for it to be visible even in the relative dark of the tunnel. "Why are you like this?"

"Makes it easy to laugh," the pink girl giggled as she knelt in front of two big pieces of rubble and began to go to work with her acid. Once the gap had widened enough and the acid stopped eating through the rocks, she started to crawl through and called back, "Come on, guys. Kurai, I'm sure you don't wanna miss the view."

Kurai's face flooded with enough heat to make him feel dizzy for a second, but he refused to bite this time. Whatever he said in response to her verbal jabs, he knew that she had a way to tease him even harder than she already was. Instead, he said, "I'm dropping the light, so be ready." Once he was sure that they were prepared, he extinguished the ball of energy and knelt by the hole, fumbling a little bit as he did so, but managing not to fall flat on his face. There was still some light coming from the exit stairs behind them, but it wasn't enough to allow for confident movements.

As he began to crawl through the rocks, Mina grunted, "Hang on- I'm almost through. Kind of a tight… fit! Oof." There was a sound of something hitting the ground, causing Kurai to worry for a moment. Before he could call out, however, she called back, "I'm okay. I just ate some dirt at the end, there. Lemme get my phone out… Here." The glow of the cell phone's flashlight illuminated the little opening, making it much easier for Kurai to move forward without fear of introducing his nose to some concrete or jagged pipes.

He noticed that the exit was a bit more cramped than the rest of the passage, and he wondered why Mina hadn't melted more of the rocks to make room. When he asked her about it, she answered by rapping her knuckles on what sounded like a hollow piece of metal. "I think this pipe is holding some of this stuff up," she told him. "I didn't wanna melt it unless I really had to."

"Smart," he grunted as he forced his way past a piece of the tracks that had been warped by the accident. He noticed that he seemed to be having a harder time getting through the rubble, and he wondered why that was until it hit him that Mina had probably melted what she needed to in order to fit herself through, and not much more. Since his muscle mass was fairly larger than her frame, he was having a harder time of it.

"Hey, Mina?" he asked he started to crawl out of the cramped space.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe next time make the tunnel a little wider? I can hardly squeeze through."

"What?" she said with a slight frown as she helped pull him through. "How are you having a hard time of it? You don't have to deal with- Oh… I see what you're saying. I forgot that you've got bigger shoulders than me."

Kurai frowned as he stood up and said, "What are you saying I don't have to deal with?"

"Don't worry about it."

Before he could press the subject, Jiro started to crawl out behind Kurai, so he moved aside and conjured another ball of light for them to see by. The other girl was nearly through when she was suddenly unable to progress any further. "Uh… I think my jacket snagged on something back here," she muttered, leading Kurai and Mina to kneel down in front of her to try and get a better look at what the problem might be.

A moment's inspection revealed that her jacket had in fact been punctured by a jagged piece of metal and was not coming loose, no matter how much she tugged on it. "Can you zap it?" Mina asked her boyfriend once Jiro gave up on trying to wiggle the leather free. "I don't wanna accidentally put a hole in her back with my quirk." Unfortunately, the girl had gotten stuck in a spot where she didn't have room to move her arms much, so she couldn't reach back and undo the mess herself.

"Yeah, I'd like to make it through this exercise in one piece, please," Jiro grumbled, clearly frustrated by her circumstances.

"I can't fire a laser without risking a collapse, even a small one," Kurai answered with a negative shake of his head. "Fortunately, we have another option." With that, he reached for his sword and activated the blade, lighting up the collapsed tunnel more than the ball he had been holding.

Seeing it, Jiro flinched and exclaimed, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're gonna do a lot more damage to me than Ashido's acid with that thing!"

"I won't if you don't move," Kurai said as he began to inch the yellow blade into the rubble, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Trust me, Jiro."

The shorter girl eyed the photon sword warily, but she did as he requested and remained absolutely still as he worked the weapon around a slab of concrete and slowly brought the blade closer to her shirt. Once he was close enough to cut the material, he halted and said, "It's gonna get a little warm, but it won't hurt, I promise."

"Just do it," she said as sweat lined her face.

Kurai made a little twitch with his metallic fingers, and Jiro's jacket fell free from the piece that halted her progress. She and Mina breathed a collective sigh of relief as he shut off the blade and placed the hilt back on his belt before lighting the area with another little sphere. "Thanks, Hikari," she said as she stood up and stretched her back. "Gotta admit, I was kinda worried that your arm wasn't gonna do the job."

"Wouldn't have tried it if I thought that was even a possibility," Kurai grinned as they turned to resume their journey into the dark. "My brother's design is flawless, and the Iida family biomechanic is one of the best in the country. I have complete faith in their brainchild."

Weiss and Sero were in the middle of reinforcing some loose rubble with ice and tape when Shoji tapped the American on the shoulder urgently. "What is it?" she asked as she wiped sweat from her brow. It had been hard going to get into the tunnel where the train had derailed, so she was already starting to feel drained from their efforts.

"I think I heard rumbling up ahead," the large boy answered as his teammates drew closer to him. After a second of complete quiet, he nodded and said, "Yeah, something in the tunnels is moving further in."

"Is it about to collapse?" Sero asked nervously.

"I can't tell, but if I had to guess-"

What he was about to guess, they never learned. No sooner than he started to speak than did the tunnel echo with the sound of thunder, followed immediately by the ground trembling beneath their feet. The three of them let out exclamations of surprise, but they soon realized that whatever that sound was, it was nowhere near them. On the other hand…

"I think that came from the north section of the tracks," Shoji said once the shaking stopped. "If that was rumbling I heard earlier, then it came from the south. It seems that our section is the only one that hasn't experienced an additional collapse- so far."

"Who went which way, again?" Sero inquired.

"Hikari's group was in the north, everyone else went south," Weiss answered as she started leading the way deeper into the tunnel. "Come on, you two. We need to find out if anyone was caught up in that, and help them if they need it."

"What about the citizen we're supposed to rescue?" Sero reminded her.

"In a real situation, I'd prioritize the safety of the innocent," Shoji said as they followed the girl. "But it's just a training dummy, and our friends might be in real trouble. Let's make sure that they're okay before we worry about saving a mannequin."

"Ojiro! Are you okay?!" Hagakure asked as she shoved a rock off of her friend.

"Yeah, just a little bruised," the martial arts-themed hero answered as he massaged his left leg. "Thanks, Aoyama."

"My pleasure, monsieur," the Shining Hero-to-be replied as he struck a pose. When the tunnel had begun to collapse around them, he managed to use his quirk to blast large pieces to dust before they could crush his classmates. He had missed a few mid-sized ones in the rush of the moment, which was how Ojiro's leg got pinned for a second, but apparently it wasn't too bad.

"What about you, Hagakure?" Ojiro asked as the invisible girl helped him to his feet. "I can't really tell if you've been injured… Wait, is your blood visible?"

"Only when it stops touching me completely," she answered. "But I'm okay, thanks for asking."

"We got lucky," the boy said as he tested his weight on his injured leg. He could definitely walk well enough, but he wasn't going to be running anytime soon if he could help it. "Here's to hoping our classmates got the same deal."

"Koda? Can you hear me?!" Blake asked the quiet student worriedly. "Say something if you're hearing me!" When there was no response, she put her head on his chest and was relieved to hear a steady heartbeat.

"He's just unconscious," she said over her shoulder. The area was lit up by the flashlights from two upturned phones, hers' and Sato's.

"Thank goodness," the sweets-themed student hero grunted. "Problem is, you being okay is about the only real good news we've got right now."

Their group had just come into the main tunnel and had actually been able to make out the wreckage of the train when the ceiling and part of the wall behind them collapsed, knocking out Koda and scraping Sato up pretty badly. Blake was now administering first aid to him by bandaging his shoulder, which might have had a minor fracture, they weren't sure. His ribs were also cut and bruised, so they would also have to be bound. Fortunately, Second Amendment encouraged its students to carry basic first aid with them as part of their costumes, so the girl had a compact kit in a fanny pack that she wore in the small of her back that she could use.

"We'll have to work with it," she said in answer to Sato's last statement. "If one of the other groups can get here, we might be able to get you guys out of here sooner instead of later."

"Here's hoping they all didn't get hurt worse than us," Sato said glumly.

"Have some faith in our classmates," Blake admonished him. With a slight grin, she added, "If nothing else, I know Weiss' group will be fine. She'll have avoided the rubble purely on the fact that she can't stand it when her outfit gets dirt in it."

Sato laughed at that. "That doesn't surprise me one bit."

"Are you two… okay?"

"Forget us, get out of there!" Mina said, her voice pitched much higher than normal as she beheld the sight of Kurai holding up a collapsed support beam with his bare hands. He was standing over a winded Jiro, literally acting as the only thing between her and being crushed by a ton of metal and concrete.

"I… can't," Kurai hissed as he shook his head in a negative motion.

The tunnel had collapsed without warning, and the falling rocks had struck all three students before a hidden support brace began to fall toward them. Kurai had activated his Divine Eye the moment the vibrations rolled through the ground, so he saw it coming, even in the darkness, and had acted to save the girls as fast as he could. He had managed to shove Mina out of the way, but Jiro had been hit in the back with a chunk of concrete and was still trying to recover her breath and senses, so Kurai had taken on the brunt of the falling weight, and now he was stuck.

If he tried to blast the rubble off of him, it could cause the rest of the tunnel to collapse on their classmates, or even on them. On the other hand, if he dropped the rocks and metal, he would definitely be flattened into paste, and there was no guarantee that the girls would make it out okay, either. Even so…

"Get her… out of there…" Kurai grunted as he strained to keep his body still, pushing his quirk into his arms and legs as to keep them steady.

Mina moved to drag Jiro away from the pile of rocks threatening to crush them, helping her get to her feet was she was a little more steady in her movements. "Thanks…" she said, still feeling dizzy.

"Thank me by helping figure out a way to get him out of there," Mina said quickly as she shone her phone light at the rocks around them. "He won't last forever!" She was close to panicking, and her friends could see it, but given the circumstances, they couldn't blame her, nor were they exactly feeling composed, themselves.

"Can't he make a blast big enough to take out the entire pile in one go?" Jiro asked as she touched the back of her head, her fingers soon encountering something warm and wet.

"Can't do that, either," Kurai said in a strained tone. "According to my scouter, we're… close to an office complex… at least ten stories tall. If this were real… I'd have to nuke the entire place to… free myself. I doubt… that'll make for good… marks."

"Screw our grades, you're gonna die if you don't get out of there!" Mina said desperately as she knelt in front of his trembling frame. "This is just practice, Kurai, it's not like anyone is gonna get hurt if you blast it!"

"We don't… know that," he grunted, though he continued to hold strong. "If I cause a blast… that big, what'll happen to our… friends in the tunnels?"

Mina and Jiro looked at one another with worry as he said this. In their worry about him, they had forgotten that there were other students still underground with them.

"We gotta warn the others, somehow," Jiro said as she tore at the hem of her shirt, taking advantage of the rips that were already there to get herself some strips of fabric that she could turn into a makeshift bandage for her head. "Maybe one of them can help us get him out, too."

"Okay," Mina nodded rapidly, though she did not take her eyes off of Kurai, who was struggling to keep his breathing measured as he continued to push his body to the limit. "Go get the others, Jiro. I'll stay here with him."

"No…" Kurai said with a slow shake of his head. "Jiro is… injured… And out of the three of us… you're best… for getting around in these conditions."

The pink girl cringed, knowing that what he was saying made sense. However, she was reluctant to leave him, remembering what had happened the last time that he was in danger without her there to help him. She couldn't bear the thought of him being injured, or worse, killed again when she could have been there with him.

"Kurai, I…"

"You gotta go, Ashido," Jiro said wearily from where she was sitting. "The longer you take to get help, the worse it's gonna be for him. Our quirks aren't suited for this- you need to try to find Schnee and Sero so they can make something to hold this mess up."

"Mina…" Kurai panted. "Let me put this… another way…" He sucked in a deep breath before he told her, "Save me."

"What?"

"We came down here to save somebody, right?" he asked her as he kept his eyes fixated on hers'. "I'm asking you… to add me to the list of people… that need saving… If it's not too much trouble. I know you can." He managed to add in a wry grin at the end, hoping to tell Mina that he believed in his own words as much as he wanted her to.

Mina trembled as tears stung at her eyes, but she did start to take step back. He was right- both of her friends were. As it stood, she was the only one capable of getting the help that they needed in order to make it out of this mess alive. That doesn't make leaving him behind any easier, she thought as the memory of him lying in the ICU with his arm gone and too much blood lost seared her mind like a branding iron.

So she turned back toward him and gave him a short kiss on the mouth. "For luck," she told him before she spun around and used her phone to light up the tunnel before her, running as fast as she could, afraid that if she stopped or slowed down, her resolve to do the right thing would break.

As the sounds of her breaths retreated further into the tunnel, Jiro turned on her own phone light to shine upwards so that she and Kurai could at least see each other a little better. That's when she gasped and held up her hand to her mouth in shock.

"So you… noticed?" Kurai chuckled through a grimace.

Jiro's eyes were fixed on the red stain that was slowly growing on Kurai's left side. "How bad is it?" she asked him, her head swimming.

"It's not deep, it's just long," he answered as quickly as he could. "I think a pipe cut me, but it could be worse."

"What can I do?" the girl asked she tried to stand, but her dizziness made that impossible for the moment.

"Don't hurt… yourself… for starters," Kurai chuckled wearily. "But… when you can move… take my sash and… re-tie it around the cut… as best you can."

"Are you gonna be able to hold up for that long?" Jiro asked him as sweat dripped down his chin.

He grinned tightly as he replied, "I… am Kai… I can hold this… as long as I need to."

Kai: You started a countdown? What, had you not decided when you were gonna kill me off until now?

Mataras: Oh no, I've known all along. I'm just curious to see how many people will be able to recognize the countdown for what it is, which is why I made mention of it today.

Deku: Doesn't that kind of take the surprise out of it, though?

Mataras: Maybe...? I didn't write down a date or anything like that. It's something you have to be looking for in particular, and even if people do figure it out, there's nothing saying exactly when it'll happen.

Kai: So when does it happen?

Mataras: Why do you bother asking when you know my answer?

Kai: I wonder if maybe I can catch you by surprise.

Mataras: You know that my character can read minds, right? It's pretty much impossible to take me by surprise.

Deku: Your character? Are you talking about your original design, or an iteration that will appear in this story?

Mataras: Yes.

Kai: ...What?

Deku: Wait, are you going to appear in this story?

Kai: Hang on, I thought you were avoiding a self-insert for this story!

Mataras: Don't worry, I won't be stealing the limelight. It'll be more of a cameo than anything- nothing that will affect the story in a major way.

Kai: Oh, so you're pulling a Stan Lee?

Mataras: More or less.

Deku: That'll be kind of cool! When can we expect you to appear?

Mataras: Spoilers.

Kai: You heartless-! I better not lose a leg or something next chapter!

Mataras: And with that, we are out of time! Next time on Your Hero Academia- Light in the Dark

Deku: Go Beyond, Kai!

Kai: Plus Ultra!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Unveiling...

"What can we work with?" the pink girl asked her friend eagerly as she turned toward her.

"Well, it's gonna be tricky no matter which way we do it, because it'll collapse no matter what we do once he gets out," Jiro answered as she took the device off of her ear and held it loosely by her side. "The best plan that we've been able to come up with involves us hitting certain parts of the rubble so that it collapses to the side instead of forward onto him- and us."

"What if we had Schnee here?" Mina questioned. "Ojiro and Hagakure said that they would send her team after us when they come along."

"We don't know how much time that could take," Jiro pointed out. "He might not last long enough for any more help to arrive. We should work with what we have now to get the job done."

"Just… make sure you get it done… right," Kurai breathed. "I don't want to see… you guys get hurt… on account of me… Whew…"

"Yeah, we're getting you out of there," Mina said as she backed up with Aoyama and Jiro. "Kyoka's right, you don't have time to wait for the others."