A/N: Alright, let's see how our heroes do in the first round of the Licensing Exam! Should be a snap since they have Kurai and Team RWBY helping them out, right?

If you guys haven't gone to see My Hero Academia: World Mission yet, you're missing out! I'm looking forward to adapting the events of the film into this story more than I thought I would be. Of course, first we need to get to that point in the timeline...

P.S. For those of you familiar with some of my other stories, you can look forward to seeing a familiar face making a cameo.

Instinct

Despite the attempts of the other schools, class 1-A was holding out strong against the barrage of target balls that had been directed at them. However, the issue with fighting a purely defensive battle was that they weren't making any headway against their opponents, either, and they were all aware that the more time went on, the less likely it was that they would be able to score a spot in the 100 slots for the next round of the exam.

"We need something to break the stalemate!" Kurai shouted as he countered a trio of target balls with a large energon blast that turned them into smoke.

"I have an idea!" Ruby called out as she sniped a student atop a rock cluster. She and the other American students were using rubber bullets for the exam, since they were competing against other students. However, they could still cause serious damage if they struck a critical area, so she made sure to aim for non-vital targets that would only cripple, not kill the other competitors. "Someone cover me!"

"You got it!" Mina shouted as she moved to take up a position behind the younger girl. "Go, go!"

"Ultimate move: Petal Storm!" Ruby wasted no time, kicking her quirk into high gear and transforming into a storm of flower petals that swarmed the students flanking them from the rear. She moved so fast that her body trailed high-speed winds that yanked the balls out of their opponent's hands as she passed them, much to their surprise and anger. Moving even faster, Ruby then began to run in a giant circle, her slipstream coursing through the gathering of students that had tried to ambush her friends, the balls that she had picked up moving to strike many of them on their targets as often as not.

The students from the other schools tried to hold their ground, but the winds were just too vicious, and standing up meant that they were more likely to have their targets struck by their own ammunition. It was a lose-lose situation, with their only hope of escape being that the girl would get worn out, or that she would be told to leave by one of the supervisors.

After what seemed like an eternity of screaming winds, a voice that the students recognized as the overseer suddenly boomed across the field, sounding much more invigorated than before. "Holy cow!" he shouted. "Two students passed within seconds of each other, and we've got nearly two hundred competitors knocked out of the fight! I'm actually awake now!"

Ruby skidded to a stop in front of her classmates, all of her targets glowing blue as she gave them a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that, guys," she apologized. "I tried not to take out too many of 'em, but I got a little carried away. I think I have to get off the field, too, so I can't help any more…"

"Not a problem," Kurai laughed as he watched their opponents stagger to their feet, still mostly disoriented. "You left plenty for us to work with, so if you'll let us do our thing…" His fist glowed ominously as he stared down some of the recovering students, and Ruby took the cue to get moving.

"Good luck, Sis!" she called over her shoulder before she was gone in another blur of rose petals.

"Glad she's on our side," Jiro muttered as she inserted her earphone jacks into the amplifiers on her hands and planted them against the ground. "I'm gonna press the advantage that she gave us, so brace yourselves!" Drawing in a deep breath, she then shouted, "Heartbeat Distortion!" The ground in front of them was torn up as Jiro sent forth shockwaves that kept their enemies from regaining solid footing. "Go, guys!"

"Not so fast!" The freshmen were surprised to see Shindo on his hands and knees, giving them a fierce smile. "You got us good, I'll give you that- but you're not the only ones with ultimate moves! Maximum force…!"

"Kameha-!"

"Tremoring Earth!" A violent shockwave, easily ten times stronger than what Jiro had created tore through the earth and ripped apart the ground that the students were all standing on. The tremors were so bad that many of them were thrown up in the air by the rippling stone, their finely honed reflexes just saving them from serious injury- but also separating many of them into smaller groups, or outright isolating them.

Kurai swore angrily as he swung his sword at any piece of rubble that came at him, slashing them into harmless pieces for several moments before the ground stopped moving and he found that he was able to stand firmly. "Great," he scowled as he shut off his saber, not wanting the glow to attract any unfriendly eyes. His scouter confirmed that he had been separated from his friends by a fair distance, and they were scattering even further away from each other. Without a way to get in contact with them, he knew that there was little chance that he would be able to coordinate with any of his friends.

On my own it is, he thought with a small sigh. He checked himself to make sure that none of his targets had been hit, and was glad to confirm that his replacement arm was still working perfectly. I shouldn't be surprised, given the incident in the tunnel, but it's good to know that it holds up in actual combat.

Done with his self-exam, he set his scouter's parameters to pick up on any people within twenty yards of him, and was surprised to see that there was only one other student within that radius. On the upside, it wasn't one of his friends, as the scan did not register their biometrics, which meant that he might be able to get halfway to passing the first round quickly.

Keeping his powers ready for use, he swiftly crept toward the solo student while keeping his scouter active, as to not get ambushed at the last second. He rounded a corner and found himself looking at an older student, probably a senior. He was dressed in a set of black body armor and a bright red hood that kept his head obscured from behind. One of his targets was on the lower left side of his back, an easy shot for Kurai to make.

Before he could hurl a ball, however, the older student said in a conversational tone, "I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

In spite of himself, Kurai hesitated, unsure if the other boy was speaking to him or to someone else. When he checked his scouter again, he realized that there was no one else in the vicinity, so he stepped out from behind the rocks and asked, "How'd you know I was there? Telepathy quirk?"

"Psychokinetic," the other student answered as he turned around to look at Kurai with dark eyes. "You take anyone out yet?"

"You're gonna be the first," Kurai answered confidently as he gathered his energy in preparation to attack his target.

"That would be unwise," the other boy said calmly, as if they were discussing the weather. "I've already defeated one other competitor, so if I had a mind to beat you, I could be on my merry way to finishing the test."

"You're saying you don't want to fight me?" Kurai asked dubiously. "That's strange, considering we're supposed to be competitors."

"We don't have to be," the taller boy shrugged. "I'd be willing to cooperate with you in order to increase both our chances of passing. I haven't been able to sense any small groups nearby, and engaging big groups is always risky- too many chances for something to go wrong. I like my odds of success a lot more if I had someone to watch my back."

"You'd trust someone from another school to do that?" Kurai chuckled. "What about your other classmates? Won't they mark you as a traitor for working with someone from another academy?"

"I'm homeschooled."

"There's a homeschooler's hero course?!" Not for the first time that day, Kurai felt genuinely surprised. "That's a thing?!"

"Not many people can afford or are equipped for it, but yes, it's a thing," the other boy shrugged again. "I'm going to be the Relentless Hero, Shadow."

"Shadow?" Kurai couldn't help but laugh a little. "Sounds like a villain's name."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, but merely replied, "I will always watch over the innocent, ever present, but never seen, and never heard through the worst of times… Just like a shadow."

When the other student put it that way, Kurai couldn't help but accept and even admire the choice of his name. "Okay, Shadow," he said slowly. "Let's say I believe you, and that you're not setting me up for an ambush. How do we do this?"

"That depends on how good you are at getting someone into a full nelson," Shadow answered with a straight face.

"What?"

"Also, what do I call you?"

"I'm gonna be Kai, and again; what?"

"Well, that sucked," Mina groaned as she melted a rock that was nearly pinning her to the ground. "You okay, Koda?"

"I think so…" the quiet student answered as he rubbed his head. "What about you?"

"Wrist is sprained, but I'll live," she answered through a grimace.

"I'm fine, by the way." The two classmates turned to see Yang heaving a boulder twice her size off of her with a chipper smile. "You guys have any idea of where the others might've gone?"

"That creep from Ketsubutsu tore up the ground right in the middle of our group," Mina answered with a negative shake of her head. "If he was aiming to split us up, he succeeded." As far as she could tell, they were the only allies that they had in the immediate vicinity.

"So what do we do now?" the blonde inquired. "Ruby usually makes the plan, so I'm kinda lost on what we should do."

"Yeah, and Kurai's way smarter than me, so I trusted him to make the game plan, which, in hindsight, was a lazy mistake," Mina agreed. The two girls turned to look at Koda, who shied away from their hopeful gazes. "Whaddya say, Koda? Got any ideas?"

When he shook his head rapidly in the negative, Yang shrugged and said, "Well, I guess we'll stick with the basics- stay together, don't get knocked out, and score enough points to go to the next round."

"I hear somebody!"

The three students froze in place as they heard a rough shout coming from somewhere to their collective left, but it was only temporary. Yang reloaded her gauntlets with shotgun ammunition, Mina readied a potent acid in her hands, and Koda drew in a breath to call out to any animals that would answer his summons.

The second that somebody appeared over the rocks that had been thrown about by Shindo's attack, Mina lashed out with her acid, melting the rocks beneath their opponents, even as Yang let loose with a couple of shotgun blasts that pelted the falling students with a storm of rubber bullets that left four students with bruises on top of bruises. None of them seemed to be in a hurry to get up, so the three UA students realized that they had easy pickings here. The only problem was…

"Four people down, and three of us," Yang said as she put her hands on her hips while looking down at a girl with black-striped orange fur on her arms. "So either two of us pass and leave the last person with nothing, or one moves on while the other two take a point apiece. How we gonna do this?"

"We're not done… UA brats!" one of the beaten students groaned. "We're gonna- ack!" His last breath turned into a pained grunt of surprise as Yang brought an armored fist down on his head, knocking him out cold.

"You two should take them," Koda said quietly, drawing his classmates' attention. "I didn't do anything to help. I didn't earn the spot."

"Dude, I'm not leaving you out here on your own!" Mina insisted. Turning to Yang, she said, "Take the two points and go join Rose at the second orientation area. We'll get the other two points ourselves."

"That sounds great, but uh…" Yang said as she held up her hands to demonstrate that they were empty. "I think I lost my balls when that guy from Ketsu-butt-su tripped us up, so…" She gave them a sly grin while she backed away and added, "I guess I gotta go find 'em. I won't be able to take these guys out, after all." With that, she let out a laugh and used her quirk to leap away from them at a high speed, ignoring Mina's call for her to come back.

"We should take these guys out before they get back up," Koda said to his classmate as he moved to tap one of the target balls on the marker of the boy that Yang had knocked out. "She's not gonna change her mind, so let's make the most of this opportunity."

"Rrrgh…" Mina scowled before turning around and pulling her own ball out of the carrier she had been provided with. "I know I should be happy that we're getting to move on to the next round, but I can't help but feel cheated. She took these guys out so easy!"

"She and the others passed their provisional exam in America," Koda pointed out meekly as he tapped the last target on his first opponent. "And we knew that they had to be good if Mister Aizawa would accept them."

"Yeah, I know, but…" Mina rolled her eyes at herself as she took out one of the other insensate students. "Kurai's attitude must be rubbing off on me. I feel like I didn't earn this. Is it right for me to move on so easily, when our friends are probably having a tough time out there?"

Koda shrugged before tagging the last target on the second student, causing his own markers to glow blue. "Xiao Long gave us the opportunity to move on, so I'd feel wrong wasting it. Besides, the test isn't over yet. I'm sure we'll have lots of opportunities to earn our licenses before the day is over. And with how often the League of Villains seems to target us, it seems like we need these more than the other students."

"Yeah…" Mina muttered, still feeling a little guilty as she followed her classmate's example and tagged out the second target. In a lowered tone, she added under her breath, "Kurai, you better be right behind me at the next test site."

"Are we sure that taking refuge inside such a large building was a good idea?" Blake murmured as she kept a wary eye out as the rearguard for her party. She, Weiss, Yaoyorozu, Asui, Shoji, and Jiro had managed to stay together after the attack from Ketsubutsu, but had so far been unable to locate any of their friends.

"It gives us a pretty good vantage point to keep an eye for both enemies and allies," Weiss reminded her as they looked out the large windows that lined the hallway where they had taken refuge.

"That won't help us if we don't pass the test," Asui pointed out. "If we haven't found anyone else by now, we should start thinking about how we're gonna find enough people to tag out." Only a moment ago, they had heard that students were passing the first round of the exam quickly, and now less than half of the spots remained open.

"She's right," Shoji sighed as he lowered his arms and retracted his extra duplicates. "I tried, but I haven't been able to find anyone."

"I hear movement down below," Jiro said as she pulled away from the wall that she had her jacks plugged into. "Four people… Ten flights down. They're coming up the stairs." With a frown, she added, "This doesn't make sense."

"Why only four people?" Blake asked, causing the other girl to nod. When the others gave them puzzled looks, she explained, "All the other groups we've encountered and observed have moved in groups of at least ten. Why so few now?"

"Maybe their companions were defeated?" Asui guessed. "They're probably just trying to find a place to hide, kind of like we were."

"Nah," Jiro said with a negative shake of her head. "They're not stopping on any of the other floors, and their pace is pretty consistent. That's not what people afraid of an enemy about to jump them sounds like." She looked like she was going to add more, but then she recoiled from the wall as if it had burned her and let out a pained scream.

"Jiro!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed as she moved to catch up her friend. "Are you okay?!"

"What happened to her?" Weiss asked, looking uncharacteristically concerned.

"Hang on," Shoji said as he put an ear to the wall. After a moment, he nodded and said, "There's music blasting from down below. It's not too bad for me, but for her…" He gazed at the shivering girl with sympathy. "It must have been a pretty bad shock to have that pumped into her ears so suddenly."

"This is a coordinated attack," the class' vice-rep muttered. "They knew Kyoka's quirk, and they exploited its weakness. We need to all be on our guard."

"If they know your quirks from the Sport's Festival, we might still be able to catch them by surprise," Blake said as she loaded her katana with a fresh clip of rubber bullets. "They more than likely have no idea what Weiss and I can do."

"True," Yaoyorozu nodded. "If that's the case, then-"

Shrrk!

The sound of glass breaking accompanied the window on Shoji's left becoming opaque with so many cracks as to become unusable. The sound repeated itself as the window next to it suddenly took on a similar aspect. Seeing it happen for a third time, Weiss shouted, "Everyone, take cover!"

"What're they doing?!" Asui yelped as she leaped behind a pillar. None of the windows had actually shattered yet, but one could never be too careful.

"They're blinding me," Shoji answered.

"Do either of you have any moves that'll let you counter a sniper?" Yaoyorozu asked the American girls, who both shook their heads in the negative.

"Not at this distance," Blake told them.

"If we had Ruby, it would be a different story," Weiss complained. "As it is, we're about to be blinded in all aspects. Jiro can't tell us who's coming, or how many, anymore, so we're going to be sitting ducks."

"If they're aiming to trap us in here, then I say we fight back," Jiro growled as she stood up and bolted for the exit, her jacks plugging into her hand amplifiers. "Heartbeat Dist-! Hey!" Her cry was yanked out of her mouth when Blake tackled her to the ground, leaving a shadow in their place that was suddenly annihilated by some kind of small projectile. "What was that?!"

"Just because they hadn't broken the windows yet doesn't mean that they can't, and whoever is shooting is almost as good an aim as Ruby," Blake grumbled as they put their backs to the wall, underneath one of the already-cracked windows. "I was gonna try to send a shadow clone for the exit, see if they killed it, but that answers that."

"Blake, whoever that was, they fired twice, and judging from where they hit your shadow, they were aiming for Jiro's amplifiers," Weiss called over from where she remained hidden from outside shooters. "They're trying to take out our heavy artillery, so to speak."

"That's some hardcore predicting," Jiro muttered as she looked at her new amplifiers. "I only used that move once since this whole thing started, and they knew how to counter it? Sheesh."

"Someone on the enemy team must have some kind of an intelligence quirk," Yaoyorozu surmised. "That, or an eye for strategy."

"Probably both, knowing our luck," Blake said dryly.

"Hey, guys?" Jiro asked with a slight shudder. "Is it just me, or is it getting colder in here?"

"Now that you mention it…" Weiss murmured as she watched her breath unfurl in the air in front of her. "It does feel like home, now."

The classmates were all startled as the walls were suddenly reinforced with some kind of blast shield that cut off the light from outside, rendering the hallways completely dark. "They're shutting us in!" Jiro growled.

"And they're chilling the air that's coming in from the vents, somehow!" Shoji said as he pointed to the A/C outlets on the ceiling.

"Ribbit…" Asui groaned before she suddenly collapsed, completely unconscious.

"What happened to her?!" Weiss exclaimed. "Is this an enemy quirk?"

"No, it's her biology," Shoji said as he wrapped the girl up in his arms to try and preserve her declining body temperature. "Since the air turned cold so suddenly, she's gone into hibernation."

"Agh, these guys suck!" Jiro shouted as she glared up at the vents before turning to her best friend. "Yaomomo, can you make a fire for her?"

"No, I'd set off the sprinklers, and then we'd be in much worse shape," the taller girl said with a frown.

"An electric heater?"

"They probably have control over the power in the building." Yaoyorozu concentrated for a second before a large blanket popped out of her back and drifted toward Shoji. "Use that for Su."

As the large student moved to do as he was instructed, the girls heard a crackling sound coming from the door that led to the fire escape. "Now what?!" Jiro demanded of no one in particular.

"They're welding it shut," Blake observed calmly as she rubbed her arms to ward off the growing chill. "The only way out now is through the doors that we came in." As she spoke, their gazes drifted toward the set of double doors, which appeared completely untouched- a promising prospect of escape that would provide relief from the bitter cold infecting their limbs.

"Do we blow the fire escape with a bomb?"

"We could cause a structural instability if we did that."

"Going out through those doors is going to get us all tagged out," Weiss frowned. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" Yaoyorozu asked their classmate. "If you have something, Schnee, please tell us."

"I can't believe that I'm about to say this, but… we're gonna borrow a leaf from Ruby's book." Weiss moved to stand by the wall, about twenty feet away from the double doors. "Shoji, get behind the pillar furthest away from these doors, and protect Asui. Blake, we're going to run 'Checkmate' so that Jiro and Yaoyorozu can flank them."

"Good idea."

"How are we s-supposed to f-flank them?" Jiro asked as her teeth chattered. "We're s-sitting ducks."

"Not if you do what I say… Yaoyorozu, I suggest creating close-range weaponry for Jiro and yourself."

The two girls glanced at each other before nodding in agreement. "Tell us your plan," Yaoyorozu said through a violent shiver.

Saiko Intelli smiled as she set down her teacup while keeping a close eye on the doors that had six UA students trapped behind them. While it's true that we don't know the full range of the Americans' abilities, a girl that produce shadows of herself and a girl with an ice quirk are not going to help matters for them in the environment that I've concocted. After all, it's been nearly ten minutes, and there's been no movement from inside.

"All right, ladies," she said as she stood up from her chair, her subordinate classmates all standing to attention in preparation for her instructions. "They're certainly incapacitated by now. Move in, bind them, and then make sure that their targets are easy to hit."

"Yes ma'am!" the others replied. It didn't matter to them that there were only enough targets for three of them to pass- they were all loyal to Intelli and her methods, because they knew that she would pave the way for their collective success.

As they readied their quirks and moved toward the door, they were all surprised when they were knocked off their hinges to make way for the American with the long black hair, her sword and scabbard in hand, and a fierce look in her golden eyes. Intelli's brow bent downward, but this was no major setback. So what if one of them managed to hold out? she thought with mild irritation. "Ladies, our first target," she announced confidently. "Bind her and-"

"Hah!" Blake suddenly moved with blinding, inhuman speed, lashing out with her weapons at the students that made the mistake of getting too close to her, and sending them reeling with deep cuts and dark bruises.

"What?!" Intelli shrieked as she backed away in shock. Her quirk produces shadows, it doesn't enhance her speed or reflexes! And no one else in her group can-!

"Surprise!" Again, Intelli was taken aback as she looked up and behind her to see Jiro and Yaoyorozu standing on the ceiling, the second girl with an extendable baton in her hand, and a stern look on her face. Without warning, they both dropped from the ceiling, the taller girl striking the closest enemy student in the back of her knees, causing her to collapse while Jiro plugged her earphone jacks into her leg amplifiers and unleashed a concussive sonic wave from her boots, incapacitating their enemies in seconds. Blake looked like she was going to be caught up in the sound burst, but she quickly faded away, indicating that she had moved elsewhere while her shadow took the hit in her stead.

Within a single moment, all of Intelli's work was in ruins, much to her fury.

"How?!" she demanded, barely conscious after Jiro's attack. "My strategy was flawless…! There was no way you could have escaped without taking casualties!"

"You underestimated our friends from overseas," Jiro chuckled as she bent over and started tagging the unconscious girls from the Seiai Academy. "That, and the lengths that we're willing to go to protect each other."

Unbeknownst to the girls from the enemy hero course, Weiss had been able to use a series of gravity-defying hexes to allow Jiro and Yaoyorozu to walk on the ceiling, and sneak past their opponents while Blake had kept their attention. Weiss had even been able to use a time dilation hex on her friend to greatly enhance her speed and incapacitate everyone that came close to her. Unfortunately, this had greatly weakened Weiss, which left Shoji to protect her and Asui while things were settled in the ambush site.

"Your quirk enhances your intelligence, yes?" Yaoyorozu asked their fallen opponent.

"Beyond your ability to comprehend, you lucky miscreant!" Intelli hissed as the UA student came close to her with a target ball in hand.

"Pfft, you're nothing compared to Hikari," Jiro scoffed, angering the Seiai girl further.

"Hikari?" she repeated. "That oaf with the metal hand? He can't be that smart if he managed to lose a full limb in combat before he even got his hero career off the ground!"

The UA girls' eyes took a dark aspect as Jiro tagged her second victim before she growled, "I was talking about his brother- a kid who's in a wheelchair that's done more good for people than you'll ever do. And that metal arm wasn't brought on by Hikari being reckless- it happened because he saved someone else."

"That doesn't make him any less stupi-!"

Thwack!

Intelli went silent as Yaoyorozu's baton struck her in the head, rendering her insensate before she swiftly tagged all three targets on the girl's body, which allowed her to pass to the next round.

"What an unpleasant individual," Weiss said groggily from where Shoji was carrying her and an awakening Asui.

"Really?" Blake asked as she stood up from where she too, had finished tagging her second target. "She reminds me of you when we started the year together."

"Hey!"

"Y'know, I can kinda see it," Jiro giggled. "She's even got the same eye and hair color as you."

"See if I help you people again, if this is the thanks I get!"

"This is a terrible plan."

"It's an amazing plan."

Kurai frowned at his 'partner', who was eyeing their targets down below them with a predatory gleam in his eye. "You're taking an unnecessary risk," he insisted in a lowered tone, careful not to alert the group of fifteen seniors down below them. "Why can't you just immobilize them from here?"

He and the other boy were perched on the lip of a massive stone slab that had come out of the ground as a result of Shindo's earlier attack. They had been waiting for a group of other students to come along, and now it seemed as though their patience had paid off. Shadow was now insisting that he go down and draw their attention whilst immobilizing the other students with his quirk so that Kurai could swoop in and knock them out.

"It works better on multiple targets if I'm close," Shadow answered as he prepared to make the twenty meter jump. "You're good with that aim of yours'?"

"You clearly saw me at the Sport's Festival," Kurai deadpanned. "Just don't move around too much if you can help it, okay?"

"Fine by me." With that, Shadow leaped out into empty space, hurtling down toward the unsuspecting students with a savage smile on his face. He used his quirk to slow his descent so that when he landed on another boy's shoulders, he didn't kill him with the crushing impact. He did, however, knock him out cold, and startle the other students into activating their quirks, which they proceeded to level at him. However, Shadow had no intentions of being struck down. Before any of them could attack, he flung his arms outward, causing an invisible force to fling the students away from him, smashing some of them into the rocks, and sending the others sprawling in the dirt.

By this point, Kurai was already moving to unleash a hailstorm of energy blasts that slammed into his opponents, knocking them out, or at least stunning them thoroughly enough to keep them from fighting back for a little while. One person with some kind of speed quirk evaded the blasts for a few seconds until Shadow's quirk got ahold of her, and suspended her a few feet off the ground, allowing Kurai a clean shot that sent her into unconsciousness, whereupon she was dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"Nice work," the hooded student called up, already moving to tap his ball against the targets of the student closest to him. "Get down here before they start waking up."

The younger student nodded and bounded down the rock face, one of his target balls already in hand. By the time he landed, Shadow's targets were already glowing blue, and he stood up straight. "Thanks for your help," Kurai said to him as he started tagging out one of his opponents.

"No problem," the older student grinned as he started to walk away. "I'm headed for the next testing area, see you there." He paused for a second before he added, "I'm not supposed to interfere now that I'm done with this part, but… Check your six."

"Huh?" Kurai finished tagging out his first target and turned around, whereupon his eyes widened and he powered his body with Energon, allowing him to leap high above a water blast that would have surely given him a concussion. Glaring at the back of his retreating 'ally', he shouted, "Shadow, you're dead to me!"

"Sorry!" he called over his shoulder. "But it was an equal trade- one target to each of us! The rest is up to you!" Then he was gone.

Kurai landed on his feet about fifty feet away from the pile of unconscious students, which put them between him and a new cluster of seven sophomores from a school that he didn't recognize. "Dammit," he growled, but he kept his temper reigned in. Losing his cool was not going to help him here. Fighting this many people would be pretty dicey on my own, so plan B it is.

Raising his voice, he called out, "How about a trade? I walk away, let you guys tag out these people, and you don't have to come after me."

"See, we would, but we need you and all these guys to advance," said a heavyset boy with dark brown fur covering his body. "So we're gonna have to pass up on that. Nice try, though."

Kurai cursed under his breath- he knew that there was no point in further trying to convince them to let him go. The overseer had just announced that only thirty-four spots remained open, which meant that time was running out for all of them. Hard way it is.

"I guess UA isn't all it's cracked up to be," scoffed a girl with hair that shimmered like sunlight on water. "If he's scared of fighting a few student heroes, he must've been pretty useless when those villains showed up to attack his school."

Kurai blinked a few times at them before he burst out laughing, surprising the lot of them. "What's so funny?" the girl demanded as her eyes started to glow white.

"You think you scare me?" he continued to giggle. "You think I'm even a little bit intimidated by a group of high schoolers that are too cowardly to engage another group in a fight of equal footing? Kids that are so afraid to risk their advance that they wait until there's just one guy left?"

The smile slowly left his face to be replaced by an anger that gave his enemies pause as he held up his metal arm and clenched it ominously. "I had my arm bitten off by a crazed cannibal while I was blind," he growled as his energy began to leak out of his body, and something about it seemed off. "I was killed the night that villains attacked my summer camp, but I came back from beyond the nether to continue the fight against anything that calls itself 'evil'. You all don't scare me- you're irritants, nothing more."

"Hey, since when does his quirk turn red?" another student asked as Kurai felt his power continue to swell inside of him, spilling out of his pores and sending goosebumps along his skin.

Red? Kurai thought as he chanced a glance and looked down at his body, surprised by what he saw. His skin had turned completely red, almost like a bad sunburn, and the joints in his metal arm were glowing crimson. Huh. Guess I already had another chakra point unlocked- I just needed a push to get me going, but… What does this one do?

A few days ago…

"Okay, hang on," Kurai said as he held up his hand to stop Akarui from typing out anything else for a moment. "I get that you altered my physiology to process my quirk without taxing my frontal cortex, but what's this about multiplying the trigger points?" He and his brother were sitting in his hospital room, awaiting for Recovery Girl and the Iida family doctor to come and prep him for surgery to replace the arm he had lost.

Akarui seemed to hesitate for a moment before he typed out his reply. *Instead of tying the trigger that amplifies your abilities- your version of a Super Saiyan, as it were- to your anger, I adhered those activation points to your chakra centers.*

"Chakra centers?" Kurai repeated skeptically. "You believe in that stuff?"

*Your Divine Eye ability is proof enough to me that it worked.* Akarui paused, backspaced a few times, and then continued his explanation. *The Ajna chakra deals with insight, and it's blocked by delusions. You've never had an issue with seeing the world as it really is, so it makes sense that this chakra would be an easy channel for your powers.*

This gave Kurai pause, and he had to admit that he was curious. After all, his brother was rarely wrong, and thus far his quirk had responded exactly the way that Akarui had said it would. "Okay, so my power is tied into my chakra," he murmured. "What does that do for me in terms of transformations? There's seven chakra, right? So, seven different forms for me to unlock?"

*I wouldn't use the term 'unlock'. If I'm right, your ability to transform isn't a one-and-done. After all, it's not as though once you unclog a chakra point, it's cleansed for life. I am… eighty-two percent certain that if your chakra becomes blocked again, you will have to cleanse it to use the form again.*

"Only eighty-two percent?" Kurai chuckled wryly. "You're slipping."

*It's five in the afternoon, and I've been inside all day. Give me a break.*

The elder brother laughed a little bit before he drummed his fingers on his leg and asked, "So? What kind of powers can I use when I clean my chakra?"

Akarui made a slight shrugging motion before he answered, *I'm not entirely sure. I do know that each chakra point will have a large influence on the outlet of your power, but all of them will be based purely on Energon's properties. After all, your quirk isn't polymorphic- you won't start spitting fire or suddenly speak in dead languages that no one understands.*

"Dead languages? What?"

*Happened to a friend of mine in kindergarten. She started speaking some kind of Aboriginal dialect that's been extinct for over a hundred years. Even I had a hard time understanding her for a few weeks.*

"Ouch."

Present…

Kurai thought fast as he settled into a combat stance that he was comfortable with, even as his new opponents eyed him with uncertainty. He kept his face neutral- after all, it wouldn't do for them to know that he was almost as confused as they were. If I remember correctly, red is the color of the Muladhara chakra… my survival instinct, which is blocked by fear. I guess that makes sense?

He had spent his spare time studying the various chakras after his brother advised that he do so, in order to get a better idea of what each internal point of energy flow might look like for him, and perhaps more importantly, what might be blocking them. Even so, guessing which chakra that he might have cleansed still didn't help him understand what was happening to his powers very much.

He didn't have any time to think it over, either. The girl with shimmering hair jerked her head forward, unleashing white-hot lasers from her eyes that were aimed to strike him in the legs, a crippling shot. Before he even had time to process the attack, Kurai's body moved on its own, sending him rolling forward, under the laser beams, and up to punch her in the jaw- an instant knockout blow.

Kurai was taken aback more than anyone else in vicinity. He hadn't planned to do that- it had just happened. What the-?

Without warning, he jumped backwards in a reverse flip movement to deliver a thunderous double-kick to a smaller guy, which gave him enough of a springboard to tackle a third student, driving their face into the rock wall and leaving them a bloodied, unconscious mess. Right after that, Kurai's legs swung up and around in a movement that he had seen Mina do as a part of her breakdance routine, kicking yet another student's legs out from under them. This was followed by a single scarlet energy bolt to the face that put her out of the fight.

Now it was down to the furry student and another guy that had an electric-type quirk, both of them staring at their would-be victim with no small amount of shock. "What the hell is this?!" the larger boy demanded. "You couldn't do that at the Sport's Festival!"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie…" Kurai shrugged as he looked at the mess he had made. "I'm just as confused as you are right now." On the plus side, it looks like I've got a kick-ass new ultimate move!

"Eiji, get ready to-!"

Crack! Wham! Thud.

Before Kurai could tell what had happened, both of the remaining students were about a foot deep in the rock behind them, and the UA freshman was left standing amid a large group of very defeated students. The moment that his mind registered that he was safe, his skin faded back it its usual color and his energy outflow ceased, leaving him feeling very tired.

"Whoa…" he said as he sank to his knees. I feel like that time I crashed after I drank a dozen sodas on a dare from Shukin.

He fumbled with his target ball for a second before he managed to quickly tap out the girl that had tried to laser him. The second that he had, he was relieved to hear his targets announce that he had passed, and was cleared to go to the second testing area. Wearily, he got to his feet and started a slow walk toward the designated spot, hoping that there would be food so that he could get some of his strength back.

Note to self- Muladhara chakra form should not be used unless it's bedtime.

Mataras: Ah... That was fun.

Kai: The hell it was!

Deku: Whoa, take it easy, Kurai!

Mataras: Hey, what are you complaining about? You got a new chakra ability out of the deal.

Kai: You totally set me up!

Mataras: Okay, still coming off the adrenaline rush, I see. I'll move on to other things while he calms down. Anyone wanna guess how the power works?

Deku: Ooh, I think I have an idea!

Kai: Wow, shocker.

Deku: If the power is tied to his survival instincts, it seems like this ability kicks those instincts into overdrive so that it's pretty much impossible to land a solid hit on him. He seems to react to even the slightest hint of danger, whether his conscious mind picks up on the signs or not. But it seems like the constant flight-or-flight anticipation and reactions is pretty draining on his body and mental faculties...

Mataras: Well, his body pretty much has to be ready to use all the energy it can at any given moment, so yeah, it's pretty tiring.

Deku: So that probably means it's not good for drawn-out fights.

Mataras: I'd use it as a last resort escape method, but we'll see what Kai makes of it.

Kai: I have some ideas about- Hey! I'm still mad at you!

Mataras: Wow, shocker.

Kai: You're not funny!

Deku: Huh. Between the two of you, I'd always pegged Mataras as the angry one.

Mataras: Don't mind him. He's still figuring out how to vent vent his emotions after not being able to for ten years. He'll figure it out, eventually. Hopefully.

Deku: Next time on Your Hero Academia- Different Heroes

Kai: Seems appropriate. Though I don't know how different you have to be before you're not even considered a hero.

Mataras: If you're talking about me, I'll remind you of Endeavor's current status on the Hero Billboard Chart.

Kai: Gah!

Deku: Class A is ready to Go Beyond!

Mataras: Plus Ultra!

Next time on You Hero Academia: Unveiling...

Search and rescue isn't exactly my thing, but it is part of being a hero, Kurai thought as he and the other ninety-nine students charged away from the now-open orientation area. It was to be treated as the medical triage in a landscape that had been destroyed by villains, which now had many, many civilians in need of rescuing.

Of course, the city and its surroundings were all populated by people that were trained actors, meant to play the part of the helpless civilians that they, the heroes, were meant to rescue. They even wore makeup that made it seem as though they were bruised and bleeding as they cried out for help.

The students had been informed that they were being graded on a point system, which meant that if they didn't meet certain expectations, they would fail the second- and final- part of the exam. While this meant that they could now all work together, regardless of their given schools, it was now more complex than simply tagging someone out to advance to the next round.

"Okay, Hikari, you're probably familiar with this kind of op," Yang said as she and most of the class followed him toward the ruined city zone. "What's the plan?"

"Seriously?!" he yelped. "I don't know about this stuff any more or less than you guys do! We've all had the same level of education when it comes to this stuff!"

"Your dad never taught you anything about this kind of situation?" Mina pressed.

Kurai thought fast, knowing that whether he liked it or not, his classmates were looking to him to help them pass the exam.