A/N: Hey guys, not much to say here, other than I have a little surprise for you at the end.

...Put down the pitchforks! It's a good surprise!

Make Your Move

"Nobody's seen him?" When all that Mina's classmates would do was exchange worried looks, her shoulders sagged and she let out a small groan of distress.

She had woken up that morning with a smile on her face, ready to face the challenges that UA would throw at her as she and her friends began their lives as dorm students. Yesterday had been a perfect outing- Kurai had taken her out on the town for a really fun time, and they had successfully engineered a situation out of which Midoriya and Uraraka walked out hand-in-hand. When they got back to the dorms, Kirishima had kept his word and ordered dinner for everybody that wanted it, and a lot of the students wound up playing in a tournament of Super Smash Brothers Apocalypse- something that Ruby and Yang turned out to be surprisingly good at.

Those that weren't invested in the game wound up talking in smaller groups, but everyone seemed to have a good time. At no point did Kurai seem like he was 'off', in the sense that he had been during their first day at the dorms, and Mina made sure that he had taken his medicine before she went to her own room for the night.

But when she had gone to meet him outside of his room in the morning for breakfast, she found that his door was unlocked, and he wasn't in bed. Having quickly searched his living quarters, she thought that he must have gone down ahead of her for breakfast, which would have actually been a good thing, in his case. His father's discipline had seen to him being an early riser since childhood, but with everything that had been going on, he had begun a habit of sleeping in when he could. If he was getting up early, that meant that he was feeling well enough to attempt returning some routine to his life.

However, when she got down to the lobby, she soon realized that he was not having breakfast, or even in the showers, having had Iida check the boys' side of the rooms. Worse, nobody seemed to have any idea as to where he could have gone, and now she was starting to get worried.

"Maybe he went for a run?" Hagakure suggested to her friend.

"Kurai hates running," Mina said with a negative shake of her head.

"Did he leave a note, or something?" Jiro asked.

"Not in his room, and I haven't gotten a text," the pink girl answered worriedly. "Dammit, Kurai, what's going on…?"

Before anyone could give her an answer, the door to the outside opened up to admit Aizawa, who regarded them all with weary eyes. "I assume you've noticed that one of your classmates is not here today," he drawled. "Hikari will not be joining you for classes for the next week, as he has been returned to the care of the hospital."

"What?!" Most of class 1-A was shocked, none of them more so than Mina. "Why? Is he okay?!"

"I have not been made aware of the complete list of details concerning Hikari," Aizawa replied, maintaining his usual dry demeanor, as if students disappearing without warning was an everyday occurrence. "All I know is that he's at the hospital for the week, he will not be having visitors, and he will be back in classes with you all by next Monday- which will be his loss, I can assure you." Turning abruptly on his heel, he added over his shoulder, "Class starts in thirty minutes. Be late by a second, and I'll have you fighting zero-pointers until you vomit."

As he left behind a stunned class, Mina rubbed her shoulders unconsciously, worry for Kurai threatening to overwhelm her. Did one of his cuts get infected? she wondered frantically. Is he being put under another psych test? Should I have let the teachers handle his episode?! Did I wind up hurting him more?!

"Mina!" The pink girl flinched at Uraraka's touch, both her and Midoriya looking concerned for her well-being. "Hikari's gonna be fine, I know it. Like Mister Aizawa said, he's gonna be back by Monday, and it'll all be okay."

"Yeah, but… I wish I knew why he had to go," she said miserably. "This is gonna be a terrible week."

"Try to keep your spirits up," Kirishima said encouragingly. "Hikari's come out through worse stuff than any of us, so I'm sure he's fine. And when he comes back, I'm sure he's gonna want to see you smiling at him. Can't have that if you're all bummed out, can we?" His words lifted her spirits a little, but not enough to make her smile.

Interestingly enough, of all people, Iida was the one to say what she needed to hear. He quickly walked up to Mina with a stern look on his face before saying, "Kurai once told me that you push him to be a better hero, even when you're not around him- and I finally believe him. He's changed a lot over the course of this school year, and not all of it has to do with the hardships he's had to suffer. In fact, if it weren't for you, I imagine that he might have given up on being a hero some time ago. So I'll ask that you return the faith that he's put in you by having some faith in him, whatever his reasons for not being here are."

She blinked a few times at him before she cracked a tiny smile and said, "Thanks, Iida." Drawing herself up a little she managed to say a little more forcefully, "You're right, I should believe in him. And when he comes back, I need to be able to hold my head high with everyone else, instead of getting behind just cos I'm worried about him."

Iida gave her a look of genuine approval before he turned around and called out, "You heard Mister Aizawa! Get in your uniforms and be ready to head in to class in ten minutes!"

"Dude, class doesn't start for thirty minutes," Kaminari complained. "We don't gotta leave for like, twenty-five!"

"Yeah, if we leave when you want us to, we'd be fifteen minutes early!" Yang called from where she was reclining on the couch with a cup of coffee in hand. "No class is worth being that early!"

"It's always better to be early than on time!"

The students received Aizawa's instructions later that day with mixed reactions. According to him, until the normal school semester resumed, they would be focusing on enhancing their powers with minimal bookwork involved, both physically like they had during the summer camp, and technically, with help from some of the other pro teachers and the support course for their costumes.

This meant fewer headaches from studying so much, but it also meant that they were going to be hurting everywhere else, too. Personally, Mina preferred this outcome- it was a much better way to ease back into school life than she had imagined it would be.

She wasn't the only one, either. A lot of the students- especially the sisters on team RWBY- were eager to see how their powers had grown since the events of their summer camp. At the time, they had just been spending each day trying not to get themselves killed from their exertions, never mind paying attention to how their quirks might have changed.

Apparently, their goal was to obtain their provisional hero licenses by summer's end, which would more or less allow them to use their quirks in public without putting their teachers' jobs on the line whenever the League of Villains showed up next. Aizawa didn't explicitly say this, but most of the students felt that it was assumed. The licenses would also enable them to work with fully licensed heroes as paid interns, act with their full powers during emergencies, or even work with the police on their request.

Their teacher made it very clear that he expected all of them to pass, despite the fifty percent failure rate that made it clear just how tough this was going to be. Some could argue that he was being a little too demanding, seeing as most students wouldn't get their provisional until their second or third high school year. But that was UA- they expected nothing but the best from their students, which meant that they were all in for a hell of a workout.

I'm starting to see why Mister Aizawa said that this was gonna be Kurai's loss, Mina thought. The amount of training that they could get in just a week would still put them at an advantage over the crippled boy when he returned to study alongside them again.

Aizawa, Ectoplasm, Midnight, and Cementoss had all taken them to a facility called 'Gym Gamma' that the blocky hero could pretty much reshape as he pleased. He designed it so that he could create unique obstacles for every student in class as needed, and Ectoplasm could spawn enough replicates to spar with each student individually while being linked to the original's mind. Aizawa and Midnight would wander the gym while the students worked to develop and enhance their 'ultimate moves'.

The pros explained that they wanted each student to develop at least two moves unique to them and their quirk, ideally before the test came along- something that only they could accomplish with their power, though it didn't necessarily have to be an attack move. When Iida questioned them on it, Ectoplasm pointed out that Iida's Recipro Burst granted him blinding speed without necessarily being a direct attack, which made the class president nearly weep with joy for some reason.

Having given his students their task, Aizawa set them to work, making sure that they each their own space to practice. The American students, many of the others were fascinated to see, were quite adept at using their weapons to enhance their powers and compliment their individual fighting styles.

Yang was clearly a brawler, but she took it to a whole new level when she donned a pair of yellow gauntlets that doubled as shotguns or mini-grenade launchers, depending on the type of ammo that she used. Her hero costume caught the eyes of several of the boys in their class, and it was clear that she enjoyed the attention in between rounds of blasting Ectoplasm's clone.

Weiss, clad in a white-gray battle dress, had an elegant rapier that she waved like a wand almost as often as a deadly blade, using a great deal of finesse to cast her hexes and fend off their instructor's attacks. The sword had various cartridges, each one somehow loaded with a different elemental energy that she could channel through her glyphs, though she refused to say exactly how it worked- family trade secrets, or something like that.

Blake's costume seemed to lend itself toward a bit of sex appeal on first glance, but the long coattails attached to her shirt added extra movement to her form, making it harder to tell when she had phased and left behind a shadow in her place. It also helped her to conceal a collapsible katana on her person- one that doubled as a handgun.

As if all of that wasn't enough, Ruby Rose's weapon really took the cake when it came to capturing an audience. The collapsible scythe was more than twice her size, but she wielded it like a pro, without any hesitation or imbalance in her movements. She was a true prodigy with the equipment, able to take on multiple Ectoplasms without breaking a sweat, and not once had she fired a live round from the scythe- because of course, it doubled as a firearm- except during target practice. The long shaft of the monster blade wound up being the barrel of a sniper rifle, one with enough power to punch through a couple of feet of concrete.

Aizawa insisted that they practice without their weapons as often as with, saying that no hero should be as good as his gear. "If you ever find yourself in a situation where you can't use your weapons, then you need to be able to still fight competently. Don't become a one-trick pony." This had irritated the girls, but they complied with his orders, regardless.

So it went that the students of class 1-A began to work on developing their signature moves. Some of them, like Bakugo and Iida, already had a solid idea of what they wanted their moves to look like, but for the rest of them, it was a little trickier.

What can I do that says 'me'? Mina wondered on the second day as she started her usual warmup exercise of secreting acids of varying potency from her hands and watching the effect that they had on the stone around her. One of Ectoplasm's clones was observing her, and she had seen Midoriya get kicked by the veteran hero more than once for just staring off into space, so she knew that she had to make it look like she was doing something at all times.

"Sir?" she asked as she settled on a variety that she was comfortable using for a while. "I feel like I'm kinda stumped."

"How so?" the man's garbled voice replied.

"Like, I have a really good handle on my powers and how to use them, but I feel like I don't know what I could do that makes me stand out to citizens and villains, you know?" she admitted as she started to secrete the same stuff out of her feet, using it to skate around in the small area that she had picked out for herself. She always did her best thinking when she was moving- it was one of the reasons that textbook tests were such a pain for her to get through.

"Your quirk is certainly a versatile one, given your level of control over how destructive the acid you create is," Ectoplasm replied, his pale eyes watching her carefully as she moved. "I suggest that you take that control and apply it to a different aspect of your quirk."

"How's that?" Mina asked as she spun in a rapid three-sixty before sliding into a crouch that gave her purchase to spring forward at a higher speed for a wall on top of which she knew Kaminari was practicing his wattage control.

"You tend to be rather sloppy with the amounts of acid that you secrete," her teacher said pointedly as he looked down at the trails that she was leaving behind, especially the stray globs that had flown off and left some small holes in her surroundings, including part of his costume. "It's something you should work on in general, but for now try coming up with something that reduces the amount of collateral damage that you have a habit of inflicting."

Mina remembered her first training exercise with Aoyama, which had resulted in her putting a couple of holes in his cape- something she was pretty sure he was still sore about. There were other instances she could think of, both before her time at UA, and since her acceptance into the academy, but she realized that Ectoplasm was right- she was sloppy with how she used her acid.

Even as this was going through her mind, she slowed herself in front of the wall, swung her left leg up, maintaining that limb's momentum as her acid carved a groove in the concrete while pivoting on the other foot and using it as purchase to slide away at an even higher speed once her leg had returned to the ground. Something to give me more control, huh? she wondered. Kurai's always had super good control over his powers- wish I could pick his brain.

Still, it wasn't like she didn't have options other than her boyfriend to help her outside of class. As verdant lightning flickered in her peripheral vision, she resolved to talk to Midoriya once she had a free minute.

"If you need time to consider what I've said, we should spend it practicing your distance combat," Ectoplasm said as he started to move toward her. "You need to be able to keep enemies away from you without inflicting mortal damage if at all possible."

"Understood, sir!" Inwardly, Mina groaned. Her muscles and skin were still sore from the previous day, so she knew it was going to be a long training session.

Four days passed without any word from Kurai, and in spite of her best efforts, Mina felt worry creeping back into her. It didn't help that the only response she'd gotten from Akarui when she tried to ask him what was going on was that Kurai couldn't have visitors in the hospital, and even his access to his brother was limited. Whatever was going on, it had to be something serious, if that really was the case.

Other students had been excited to start upgrading their costumes, but Mina didn't really put too much into relying on support items, other than her shoes, and there was no room to improve their design just yet, as far as she could tell. She wished that she could have had something extra like that to distract her from missing Kurai, but it seemed that she had been dealt an unfortunate hand in that regard.

The girl was finding it harder and harder to keep her upbeat attitude going the longer that Kurai was away from her, and now she started to realize why he had been cautious about getting into a relationship with her in the first place. So far, at least we've been able to face stuff together, she thought as she walked into Gym Gamma with the rest of her classmates, ready for another day of intensive training. It was difficult, but we could lean on one another… I really hate feeling alone without him.

It was unsettling, realizing that she no longer felt quite like herself without her significant other. Mina had always been self-confident, despite the insecurities that she had developed due to her brothers' accomplishments and the way that society tended to look at the odd girl with the horns and pink skin. But now she felt an unease in her stomach, a tension that just wouldn't go away, no matter how or who she tried to relax with. It just felt wrong to be apart from Kurai- not even physically, just emotionally.

I wish I could at least talk to him! she thought, even as she drew her hands to her sides like she had seen Kurai do dozens of times.

"Okay, I think I've got an ultimate move," she said to Ectoplasm, giving no sign of the turmoil that she was wrestling with. "Acid Geyser!" Thrusting her hands forth, with her wrists kept close together, she sent out a spout of acid corrosive enough to eat through stone- but it only flew about a foot in front of her before the heavy liquid succumbed to gravity and fell on the floor, creating a small basin in the concrete. That's not supposed to happen.

Trying to hide her gaffe as best she could, Mina grinned at her teacher and said, "It's not totally there, yet, I know. But I'm onto something, don'tcha think?" After all, the acid stream had been pretty controlled when she created it- she just couldn't put enough force into the secretion to make it like Kurai's Kamehameha just yet.

Instead of looking unimpressed like she had expected, however, Ectoplasm actually nodded a couple of times before he said, "Not bad at all. If that is the route you want to take, try compressing your fingers to make a nozzle or a hose."

Mina perked up when she realized that she wasn't about to be lectured, and quickly made the adjustment that her teacher had suggested. Keeping her palms cupped against one another, she formed a little circle with her fingers and engaged her quirk again at maximum force. This time, the acid that sprayed out went in a more precise line and with greater velocity. It also required less effort from her, since the new method involved creating less acid to produce the desired effect.

"Hey, that looks awesome, Ashido!" Izuku said as he and Uraraka approached her.

Glancing at her teacher, the clone immediately nodded and rumbled, "Five minutes. Well done." Then he faded away into the white mist that he had come from.

"You've got an ultimate move all lined up, that's great!" Uraraka said as she and her boyfriend stopped in front of her. "We're all gonna get our provisional licenses for sure, at this rate!"

"Uh, I still haven't figured out a move of my own," Midoriya reminded her sheepishly.

"Oh… Sorry, Deku."

"Wait, what?" Mina inquired. "I'd have thought that you'd have like twenty moves all set up with how much you obsess over All Might."

"Yeah, but the thing is, Mister Aizawa says that I'm not allowed to just copy another hero's move," Midoriya sighed despondently. "I need to come up with something that's unique to me- to my hero name."

"I came up with my move by watching Kurai," Mina countered. "I just gave it a different name, you know?"

"It still looks different, and it doesn't do the exact same thing as his, though," Midoriya replied. "I'm pretty sure that when he gets back, Mister Aizawa is gonna make him come up with something new, anyway." Forcing himself to smile, he then said, "I'm sure I'll come up with a new move, soon. I think I just need to spend a little more time going over my notes on augmentation-type heroes to see if I can put something together from all that."

"Maybe Kurai can help you when he gets back?" Uraraka suggested. "He's helped you with your training in the past, remember?"

"You guys haven't heard from him, have you?" Mina asked quickly before Midoriya could give an answer.

A little glumly, her two friends shook their heads in the negative. "Sorry, Ashido," Izuku said apologetically as her expression wilted. "I know that this can't be easy on you."

"Yeah, well, being a hero was never about living the easy life, you know?" she said with a forced smile. "I'll get through it- and besides, Mister Aizawa said that he'd be here on Monday, so if nothing else, we're halfway there, right?"

"Right," Ochaco said with a peppy smile of her own and a reassuring pat on Mina's back. The pink girl always found it funny how her friend kept her pinkie finger tucked against her palm when she did this, as to avoid making the target of her affectionate gestures float.

Just as this was happening, an explosion preceded a shout of victory from Bakugo- he had successfully created his second ultimate move. What exactly it was, the three of them had no idea, as they had only noticed him after he had started congratulating himself.

Before they could all go back to their respective training regimes, fear shot through them when they heard the blond student let out a shout of alarm- one aimed at All Might, who had apparently come to witness their progress for himself, as he had already done on Monday. Only this time, he had gotten a little too close, and now a big chunk of rubble that had been knocked loose by Bakugo's explosions was falling right for him. Now that All Might was no longer the Symbol of Peace, he had no power to get himself out of the path of the falling debris- he was about to be seriously injured.

Aizawa and Midoriya reacted first, but they were too far away to help the retired pro, who had frozen with a sort of 'deer in the headlights' look about him. Eraserhead's scarf would never reach his peer, and Izuku's Full Cowling wasn't quite powerful enough for him to clear the gap between him and his mentor.

"Hrah!"

A clarion war cry echoed through the gym just before a burst of light collided with the heavy debris, reducing it to harmless bits and dust that showered All Might instead of crushing him. Midoriya skidded to a stop next to his teacher as the older man turned around, both of them stunned by what they saw. Bakugo froze when he saw who had saved All Might, while Mina and Uraraka ran after Midoriya, wanting a better look at what was happening.

When they got a clear view, themselves, they also stopped in place, their eyes wide with surprise.

"So…" a familiar voice said as the owner strode in confidently, his body clad in blue and orange. The last time they had seen him, their friend had been moving carefully, not wanting to risk injuring his arm any further that it had been, or triggering the phantom pains that had plagued him so badly. Now he stood tall and strong, ready to take back his place alongside his classmates in UA High. Slowly, he raised his right arm and flexed the shiny fingers that were attached to the fully robotic limb that started at his bicep, and then clenched them into a fist with a sharp clang!

Kurai grinned broadly at his dumbstruck friends as he asked, "What'd I miss?"

"Ultimate moves."

"Dammit, I knew Mister Aizawa was gonna do something cool while I was gone!"

Mataras: So... how are we feeling?

Kai: ...Much better, thank you.

Mataras: Was that so hard to say?

Kai: Don't push it, dude.

Mataras: Fair enough.

Deku: So Kurai is back in fighting shape? He's not gonna have any more physical problems?

Mataras: Nope. Consider him rehabilitated. This actually ties into the surprise that I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, but the next instalment will actually be the epilogue of this phase.

Kai: Wait, really? If that's true, then this phase wasn't even half the length of the last one!

Mataras: Not every phase is gonna last a year, mate. First one was about you getting past the limitations that your quirk put on you, and this second one has been about you overcoming the limits of your damaged body.

Deku: So... what's the next one gonna be about...?

Mataras: It's gonna be addressing a few different topics, but I suppose it would be accurate to say that he's gonna have to decide exactly what kind of hero he's going to be by the end of it.

Deku: Is that all we get for a surprise? You said it was a good one, but that felt kinda ominous.

Mataras: Ah, thank you for bringing that up! Actually, the real surprise is that I will be releasing the next chapter a week early- so, about week from now, which means for those of you interested in me reacting to your reviews, you have a shorter time frame (sorry 'bout that). This is mostly to catch up on my original schedule, and with the phase ending, it seems like a good place to do it.

Kai: Also, this was just a really short chapter.

Mataras: Yeah, kinda.

Deku: Next time- Armed and Ready!

Kai: Did you seriously make a pun out of-?!

Mataras: Go Beyond!

Deku: Plus Ultra!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Survival...

"Man, I just got into my gear," Kurai complained. Seeing the expectant looks of everyone around him, he then added, "I'll explain everything once we get back into the dorms." This seemed to mollify the lot of them, and they began to drift past him, with the exception of Mina and Bakugo, the latter of whom hadn't moved since All Might's close call.

The two of them locked eyes for a moment, though Kurai wasn't exactly sure what he was seeing in the other boy's gaze. Normally Bakugo was an easy read, but for the first time since they had met, Kurai found himself unable to tell what the blond boy was thinking.

Eventually, the other student let out a scoff and blasted his way off of his training block to land behind Kurai and departed with the words, "You've got a lot of catching up to do, Saiyaman."

"Nice to see you, too," Kurai muttered as he watched the other boy go. It wasn't until Bakugo was around the corner that he realized that it was the first time the two of them had actually stood face-to-face since Kurai had given up his arm to save his classmate's life. Even throughout the first weekend at the dorms, Bakugo had pretty much avoided any direct contact with him. What's his problem?