The day went on as the rest of the students showed off the quirks of the upper class. Some, like Hayashi's Cactus, Suiiki had already seen (and was personally unimpressed by). Others, like Asai's Prism Ray - which sent out a torrent of lights that honed in on the opponent – he hadn't any recollection of, though that could be chalked up to how shy she'd always been in class. Takeda's Toolbox many had agreed, was the definition of an all-rounded utility and combat oriented quirk. Even Nanase's Zipper, however goofy Suiiki thought it was, actually had many unique uses to it.

If he just unzipped someone's body, wouldn't their guts just spill out? Or would he be able to climb inside them? Wait, does that mean he creates pocket dimensions? Can he unzip the air? So many possibilities!

"Okay, everyone!" He was broken from his thoughts by Erina's announcement. "We're down to the last four in the upper class, and as expected only a handful from the lower group came today. Thanks to that, we'll be able to get them in as well instead of doing them on a separate date. If those from the lower class would line up in alphabetical order, we'll get you through shortly."

I didn't expect any of them to show up except maybe Kisho and Tsubame. Can't be too surprised, we hardly have enough with just our one class in the grade as is. And not everyone even showed, so fair enough.

"Once the judges get all your results handed in to the organizers, we'll talk about the inclusions and then I'll send Vice President Tsubame to pass out the early line-up, so please wait awhile after everyone finishes before leaving. Kisho, your class President, has taken it upon himself to decide the brackets with the planners, which I'm quite thankful for, so I would like to show my appreciation to him now."

There was a short round of applause as he bowed to his peers. "With all the work you do for us? Erina, it's the least I could do for a wonderful, pretty teacher like yourself."

"Gag me." Ranika said not so quietly, earning a flick on her forehead from Tsubame. Kisho definitely heard her but paid no mind, merely smiling as attention switched back to the teacher, who'd been somewhat flustered with Kisho's compliment.

"…a-hem…In any case, let us hurry so the judges may get some rest, and remember to be polite and thank them for making the time to come here. Now, I believe the next person was-"

"Me! Memememememememememe ME!" Suiiki was already at Zone 1, prepared to show how much he could really do and wow the judges.

"So this one finally gets his go. Back to it, then." A mustached judge said, signs of a long day showing on his face. "Name and quirk, please. Then begin without delay."

"Suiiki Saru. My Quirk is Hydro-Mastery." After his introduction, Suiiki pulled water out of the two basins he was provided as accommodation and went to work on the wooden dummies in front of him.

It's not about how fast you do it, it's showing how flashy and versatile you can be. Maybe something tame for the opening. Changing the water into spinning frozen discs, he sent them after the dummies and cut through them at high speed, leaving bits and pieces of splintered wood all around. As he destroyed the last one with a decapitation, the field opened up and more rose from the ground.

What'd they think of that? Trying to sneak a peek at the judges without them noticing, he was glad to see they'd already started vigorously writing in their notes, some still watching for his next move. Yes! They ate that up! This'll be cake…why's HE watching?

Kisho was also observing Suiiki's demonstration with great interest. Does he think observing me will help him think of a weakness? Too bad for him, he won't find any. He turned one of the discs back towater and engulfed a dummy, refreezing the water when it was submerged from the chest down. He then used the other disc to smash it into pieces, breaking the dummy along with it. A cascade of tiny bits of ice scattered around, making a small rainbow as the light bounced from one piece to another, earning vocal acclamations from his classmates. Suiiki thought he even saw a judge smiling as he went on writing.

And I didn't even plan for that last part. This is going perfectly! I knew I had this in the bag. Now, for the rest of them, what next? Hmmm… Aha! Using most of the water, he created a thin ice rink around the dummies and skated towards them, turning the remainder into an arm brace to attack with. Skating about, he slammed his icy fist against the targets, and though he wasn't strong, it still managed to break the surfaces and crack them apart. Leaving one aside for a final move, he took all the ice, rose it high above the lone opponent, and turned it into a horde of spikes. He then swung them down with all his might, inevitable impalement ensuring a swift end to the dummy's short life.

And here's the grand finale! Feast your eyes on-

"Stop."

Abruptly halted, his ice turned back into water and drenched the previously doomed dummy with water, soaking into its wooden figure. Dang it, come on!

"Yes, sir?"

Raising a brow at his papers, he considered them before speaking again. "Your quirk, Hydro-Mastery…is it all liquids, or specifically only water that you can manipulate?"

Hesitant to answer, he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, there's some water-filled…basically nothing else, no. Just water."

The subsequent scribbling no longer made Suiiki confident. Instead, he felt dread as he imagined what they had put down about his quirk. "Erina placed those basins for you to use, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume this is because you can't produce your own water?"

The question made Suiiki himself freeze, unsure how to answer the him.

"Well…"

What are these things made of? I thought I could get some water really quick and demolish these things, but there's barely a drop anywhere in this place, and the few tiny bits I got would barely fill a cup. And then come to find out the faux villains armor's too tough for ice to puncture. I've wasted half of everything I gathered trying to short circuit just one…

"How am I supposed to get more than this?" Suiiki said, hiding in a building to avoid detection. Believing that he was alone, he almost let out a shriek when he felt a hand tap his shoulder. The girl quickly covered his mouth before he could do so, an act he was thankful for.

"Calm down." She whispered, getting in his line of sight. "Just another person waiting it out. Thought you looked familiar, you're the water boy!"

"Hah…you know me?" After he had gotten over his initial fright, he tried to place a name to her face, but came up empty. While he tried to remember, he noticed many marks up and down her arms, which she covered up immediately after she caught on to his staring.

"Ouch, that's a lot of scars. Where did they come from?"

"Oh…yeah, those are when I got clipped a bunch from those hard suckers. Barely had time to react to them. However, I got this one from somebody else." She pulled up her pants to reveal her left leg; a large, bleeding wound tore from her foot to her knee, and from how much blood was pouring out, it was pretty deep as well.

"Sheesh. Someone attacked you? That's not cool, they should get punished, have some points docked!"

Waving off his concern, she covered it back up. "I don't think she did it on purpose. I was having a hard time against a three pointer since they made them basically immune to fire, so she came to help. Next thing you know, I'm caught in the crossfire and I'm left nearly crippled from her insane quirk, whatever it was. She'll pass easily with something as awesome as that."

"If you say so, then I guess it's fine. What'd she look like?"

"Can't remember, I was trying to get out of the way. Think her hair was light red. Pink, maybe? It's no biggie, though. I'm used to that sort of pain. What about you, your ice should be fine against them, right? How come you're not out there smashing those babies down?"

"Well…"He turned into his liquid form and tried to pull some from his body. It was a little less than half a cup, making her cringe."Oh. I see. Not enough to be useful. That really blows."

"Yep. It's weird, the harder I concentrate, the less I get out. Sometimes if I feel good, I can make like a buckets worth! Others…you saw."

The two of them sat there for a long while, contemplating their predicament until a shaking in the earth made them aware that the massive zero-point villain had appeared in the distance. Finding little use in trying to fight the behemoth, Suiiki opted to care for the girl's leg despite her insisting otherwise. Using the last little pocket of water he had held onto, he first cleaned her wound, then coated it in ice to slow the bleeding and numb the pain, something she was very grateful for.

"Oooh, that's so much better. Thanks. You really shouldn't have."

"I told you, don't sweat it. I'm not passing anyway, so the least I can do is help someone out this much. And my name's Suiiki, if you don't know."

"Homura."

"Looks like both our parents were really creative with their naming."

"Buddy, you're telling me! Even my first name, Hinote? It's all fire. But I don't hear Suiiki at all around here. I think Suiiki's a very nice name."

He blushed while keeping the ice pressed into her leg. "Thank you, and personally I've never heard the name Hinote before, but it sounds really…"

"Generic?"

"…sweet."

She blinked in confusion at his answer. "Sweet?"

"Yeah, like warm chocolate chip cookies, when the chips inside are all melty and the cookie's real soft!"

"Heh, I've never heard that one before! Though I don't usually get compliments, so…"

Wait, was that her name? Hinote? Was that the girl earlier with…hold on, she mentioned a girl with pink hair…no, it couldn't be the same-

"Hello!? Kid, you with me? I asked if you could produce your own liquid or not!" The judge had stood out of his chair and seemed a bit worried for him.

Oh no, I zoned out! Answer him!

"Uh, yes! Well, not like-I can! …kind of." To his dismay, the judge's face lit up upon hearing his answer.

"You can? Well, why don't you show us? Defeat the last target with your own water."

Damn. And here we go. Alright, let's get this over with. But I can make a good cupful now, though. Maybe they won't mind it too much if I show them really fast. And maybe I'll push it over with this, at least. Shifting into his water form, he closed his eyes as he pulled out the tiny amount of water, changed it to ice, and just flung it as hard as he could at the dummy.

SHUNK!

…that was a lot louder than I thought it'd be. Taking a proper look at the dummy, he saw it was completely impaled by a single large icicle, rammed right through the middle where it's torso should've been. A chorus of cheers came from his classmates, while the judges were clearly won over by his abilities.

"You can take the form of water, as well as make your own. Makes me wonder why you requested a basin in the first place." He grinned as he made a quick check in his notes. "Thank you for your time, Suiiki."

…what just happened?

"Now that he's done, Daisuke, you're up."

His anxious friend took the center zone as he walked off. Ranika was the first to congratulate him. "A great show, as expected with someone possessing a quirk like yours."

Suiiki's hesitance to respond tipped Genso off to what he was suspecting. "I don't think the last part was "as expected" as he'd have liked. I'm guessing this wasn't a natural everyday occurrence?"

Looking at his hands, he took his water form again and attempted to pull out water, straining himself to see how much he could get out. To his frustration, only a tiny fraction of what he got before came out. "It's so confusing. I usually can't get more than a cupful of it out, now suddenly I make enough to create a huge spike. Now I'm back to this. And I genuinely tried this time."

Tsubame offered her own two cents. "What if that's the problem? You actually trying, I mean?"

"What do you mean by that?" Suiiki asked, taking his human form again.

"Think about it. Your quirk is water, a free-flowing element, and it's not something that you can force to do what you want. Water won't succumb to your will. You must be a part of it."

Suiiki still seemed unsure as he drew the water out of his clothes. "I…don't understand, but it's fine. I'll get it eventually. If it happened once, it'll happen again."

"Well, you've got the optimism!" Ranika said, a little bit too dismissive for Tsubame's liking.

"Well, it's nice to see you're not bothered. Just make sure you explore this a little bit. You do want to get the hang of it sooner rather than later."

"Ah, I'm sure it's fine. I'll probably be able to do it anyway even without! If anyone's gonna do it, it'll be me!"

Tsubame and Genso shared a look at that statement, not exactly thrilled with how he was handling it. "Perhaps, but I still-"

"Look at him go! Have to admit, of everyone I've seen today, Daisuke still has the best shot at winning!" Suiiki paid no more mind as he enjoyed the show being given by his friend, now pounding a metal dummy twice as big as he into the ground.

Though he didn't want to drop the previous topic, Genso focused on Daisuke, pulling out his entry on him. "Yes, anyway you look at it, his quirk is superb. Digestive Morphing lets him just eat any inorganic material and then turn into the substance, though I've asked him myself about it and he says he must ingest quite a sizeable amount. At least the size of a bottlecap, and that's not easy to swallow. Can't imagine what he had to go through to get his nickel composition."

"Oh, he was a kid when he did that. First memory I have of him was watching him eat a coin right in front of me. He nearly choked and died, but then he turned into it and, well, that's how we learned what his quirk was. Made for a funny story afterwards too!"

Tsubame was horrified with the levity Suiiki spoke of such an event with. "That's horrible! What part of that was funny? Shame on you!"

"I was barely four! Besides, it worked out in the end, so it's cool."

Pushing his glasses to his face, Genso too was disturbed at the retelling of events. "The possible asphyxiation of a child isn't what I'd personally call, as you put it, "cool"."

Ranika, sensing the rising tension between them, picked on Genso a bit to ease the conversation. "More egghead terms for everyday words. Just say choking or suffocating or whatever. No one needs the scientific name for suffocating!"

"Factually incorrect. In fact, suffocating is actually wrong in this case. Suffocating would be used in a setting where your breathing orifices are being covered, a verb that leads to asphyxiation."

"Tomato, tomahto. How-"

"You two settle this elsewhere. Whatever you want to call it, it still leads to someone getting hurt. What if he really did die then? How would you feel?" Tsubame abruptly put an end to the slight digression and jumped back on track.

"You're just a spoilsport." Suiiki scoffed. "Just live and let live, you know? That's the spice of life! Never got anywhere without taking a few risks!"

"That's not comparable." Tsubame was becoming annoyed with Suiiki now, evident to the others by the tone of her voice slightly rising. "Taking a risk is nowhere close to putting someone in needless danger, whether it be from your actions or, in this case, lack of."

"Sounds like I'm losing either way, so might as well not do anything then."

"Not taking action is still an action."

Ranika made a more deliberate effort this time around to stop their argument. "Alright, you two. This doesn't really matter right now, let's just watch the end of Daisuke's turn and congratulate him for his work."

"He's being way too flippant about honestly a very important subject. Someone could die with his mindset the way it is."

Suiiki rolled his eyes at her, also getting tired of this back and forth. "Overdramatic much? Fine whatever, I'll do what you want, just stop nagging me."

"Suiiki, Tsubame's only trying-"

"I'm nagging? Excuse me for trying to make you understand the value of a life besides your own." Walking up to Suiiki, she was practically touching him with how close she got to his face, making him back away slightly. "Do you go through your whole life that way? Inconsiderate of anything but your own enjoyment? Your actions have consequences on people besides you."

"You're free to leave me be if you don't like the way I live! No one is forcing you to be here!"

"It's not just about you, it's about everyone around you who chooses to stay because they like you! Why not make an effort for them, instead of being a selfish jerk who only caters to your own childish desires?"

"And who made you the judge of others? Sounds to me someone has a bit of Kisho rubbing off. Too much time as his VP?"

Fed up with both of them, Ranika grabbed the two and forcibly shoved them away from each other. "Next person who speaks wins a free trip to oblivion, courtesy of me. Think I'm joking, try me. I won't even need my quirk." Cracking her fingers for effect, she stared at the two of them, almost asking for one to say anything at all. After seeing she was, in fact, not kidding, Tsubame went back to her group to get ready for her own showing. Suiiki stormed inside the field entrance, thoroughly upset after the exchange.

Genso sighed in agony. "Ranika, I'll deal with Tsubame. She's prone to being a bit forceful with her own beliefs, wanting to raise everyone to her standards. Give Daisuke my best regards." Genso left to talk down Tsubame, leaving Ranika with the task of bringing Suiiki back as well.

"Hell, Tsubame can be aggressive herself. Didn't expect that from her. I mean, how serious can being a little reckless be? Gotta have some fun." Ranika said to herself.

Or did she hit a bit too close to home for you?

Shaking her head, she groaned as she buried the thought, prioritizing Suiiki over doing any self-analysis. "Eh, that stuff's not for an ogre like me. I'm just a smash and win kinda girl. No need for anything more complicated."

Still trying to convince yourself?

Vigorously rubbing her hands through her pink hair, she tried to ignore her inner voice by blocking everything out, not noticing Daisuke venturing towards her, looking rather excited for once.

"Ranika! I think I actually did pretty well for myself! I was nervous about being in front of judges and everyone else, but I stopped thinking about them and really got in the zone! Did you guys see? Where'd everyone go?" Seeing the expression on Ranika's face, coupled with Suiiki sitting far inside the entranceway, Daisuke lost his cheerful demeanor and went back into his usual status of worry. "Is everything okay? I have a feeling everything's not okay. On a scale of 1-10, how not okay is it?"

Not able to think of anything to say back, Ranika said the first thing she remembered on her mind.

"Genso uh, sends his regards."

"That's a ten."

Mako peered out of the glass window overseeing the field, where Suiiki had finished his admittedly impressive demonstration. Mako's own had gone as one would expect. He blew the targets away with his Ricochet and that was that. Nothing too crazy, just wind and force.

Nothing like the spectacular showing Ranika had given. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she was a completely different person. The tricks she used far surpassed anything she'd ever shown. Even her cafeteria stunt merely two days ago seemed a far cry from the apparent mastery she'd gained over her once one-note power. It was actually quite distressing, and the reason he was still staring out the window as the rest of the upper class finished.

"I don't understand. How can that stupid girl suddenly have so much more than me? I didn't even consider her doing anything more than blowing wind. But now she's got all sorts of tricks up her sleeve, with mobility being almost top priority."

Kisho sighed from his chair as he closed the book he'd been reading, setting it on the table in front of him as he addressed his partner for what seemed to be the tenth time. "Come on, she learns a few new tricks and you think she's blown past you? Doesn't really matter to me whether you win or lose against her, but your whining has become quite bothersome and I'd prefer you do it somewhere else. Unless you're changing your mind and you don't want to fight her, but that wouldn't really give you your chance to shine, would it?"

"I'm not backing down, and I don't care which way it goes either! I'll still get exposure to that holy grail of hero schools." Peering out once more, Mako saw Daisuke also making quick work of the dummies. "I just didn't think about the "lose" option until now. And what about you? You saw Suiiki, how much better he's gotten."

Kisho sipped his cup of tea, seeming unworried about his own situation. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by Suiiki's own growth, but all the same, I'm completely his counter, especially with Tamura's quirk at my disposal." Emphasizing his point, he drew a pencil and blank sheet of paper from the table to his hands using only the suction. "Such a great ability wasted on him. Thankfully, I was there to properly appropriate it to greater means."

"Shut up."

"Excuse me?"

"I said shut up. I don't like listening to you talk about it like that. Doesn't it bother you? Don't you think about any of that sometimes?"

Chuckling at the prospect, Kisho started drawing brackets on the paper. "How do you feel when you eat beef or pork? Some people are comparable to cattle, only here to further those with the capability to, excuse the phrase, go beyond. I don't think about him."

"What if his parents come looking for him? What if the police get involved?"

"I already told you, they won't. And if they do, it's no problem, especially not if that braindead girl's sister is the chief. Anyone related to her is not to be taken seriously whatsoever, brains or otherwise." Taking another sip, he had completed the bracket for the tournament and was already thinking of the schedule needed to satisfy his desires. "Besides, no DNA or evidence of any sort was left behind. The best they can do is call him missing. Cold case."

"What about Erina?"

Kisho dropped his pencil when Mako brought up the telepath. He'd forgotten about her completely. "…I don't know. She could…" Biting his lip, he gave the question serious thought, before his face brightened. "She wouldn't! Remember how that man earlier said she was reluctant to use her powers in that way? Or even if she did, she'd keep it secret?"

Mako followed his train of thought. "And you've been around her for more than enough time for her to figure it out. Either she's dumb, or she must not have a single shred of a conscience whatsoever."

Feeling reassured by his confidence, Kisho picked the pencil off the ground and continued thinking of ways to order the tournament. "We have a couple of stronger people in the upper class, so I'm thinking I'll put most of them in the second half of the schedule. You, me and our respective rivals should happen in maybe the second round. Don't want it to happen too early, and we can avoid a conflict of interest if I fight you at the semifinals. I don't know some of the inclusions, but I can at least prepare our own placings." Writing down some of the people he surmised would be included, he developed a list he believed would lead to his overall victory easily.

Mako gave his own knowledge to Kisho, who hadn't paid attention to most of the earlier showings. "There's a fire girl that I know they're letting in, so that could be an easy win for me."

"Fire, you say? That can be Suiiki's first match. I'm confident in my own strength, but no harm in making sure she's out early. Any others you know will be there?"

Mako though for a moment, thinking of any people who stood out. "Well, Daisuke will be tough, so maybe pair him up in the right-hand bracket so I don't have to fight him? There was also a card guy and some chick with light rocket things? They were small and hone in on you, but I don't think they do too much."

"Seems like a solid first match for me. Wasn't there a strong person with an engine quirk in your class? We should avoid any raw strength matches at all costs."

"Probably thinking of Inouye. He's probably the overall strongest physically in the school. I could take care of him, but I'd rather not risk it."

Kisho looked over the order he'd made, a moment of worry passing over him. "Thinking about Daisuke, that one's surely going to cause a bit of trouble for me. Preferably, I'd give him a matchup that results in a loss for him early on, but who would do that?"

"So, you can just decide all this then? Interesting."

A low voice from behind startled Mako, while Kisho merely shifted his head to get a look at the person. "Who is asking?"

"Seems to me you have a bit of say-so in who fights who in this tournament. Doesn't sound fair for the others. Not that I'm interested in any of that." The girl was at least a head taller than both the boys, and her arms didn't even go into the sleeves of her jacket, which was mostly draped along her brutish shoulders.

If Kisho was intimidated, he made a superb show of hiding it. "I'm attempting to give the audience as much of a spectacle I can with the students we have."

"Don't bullshit it. I know what you're tryna do, and I actually couldn't care less. I won't say a word, provided you give me someone who can fight. An actual battle I can unleash myself in. And he mentioned someone pretty interesting before. Inouye." Her voice growled on his name, almost eager to pounce on the very sound.

"Yes, Inouye. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what exactly he does, but I should have an entry in the school's website about him. Just give me a minute to pull him up." Kisho pulled out his phone to look it up. Meanwhile, Mako anxiously made his way back to the window to get away from her, observing a girl who'd taken Daisuke's place on the field. She tapped the ground and a second later, the dummies across the field were blown out of the ground, rocketed upwards by an explosion from the dirt beneath them.

"I keep learning there's a lot more power in the class than I thought. What the hell." Mako said, making small talk while they waited for Kisho to bring up results.

She made a grunt of disgust before responding to him. "I've fought Leilani before, and her Shifting Impact was a complete letdown. Barely felt a thing when she used it, even at the epicenter of the attack. Worthless."

"Oh, so you've fought her? Do you two know each other? Friends? Enemies?"

"Well, I heard she had a powerful quirk, so I attacked her. She tried to scare me off before trying to hit me, but after hitting me twice point blank, I determined her to be a waste of time. Didn't even leave a mark. And of course, one punch from me and she cried about her forearm breaking. Pathetic."

Mako watched as Leilani continued blowing the dummies with impacts larger than the last, throwing them all over the place with her explosive quirk. Thinking about how that had no effect on her made him queasy.

"What's your name, by the way? I don't believe I caught it."

"I never threw it."

"Got it." Kisho called out for her attention, putting the phone at an angle she could view it at without being in his face. "Inouye Sanki. Quirk: Dynamo. He has electromagnetic drums inside his body that work harder the longer he's active, providing him more power as time goes on in a fight. Sounds like a bad person to wage a war of attrition with."

The brawny girl was pleased with the description. "Sounds like that's exactly how I should start off. I need him as strong as possible for as long as possible. Don't want him going down so easily."

"Whatever you want, I don't care as long as you don't get in my way. Have you shown the judges your quirk, or are you lower as well? Do you even know if you'll be in the tournament? I don't keep track of the unimportant people." Kisho casually made a slight towards her, which she didn't seem to take issue with.

"Actually, you'll be getting a glimpse in just a minute. I'm the last one to go from the first class, so just watch me. I promise you, I'll be in that bracket, you just put me down with Inouye." With that, she left the room and headed for the field, where Leilani had just concluded with much praise.

"Who the hell is she? I've never seen her in class before." Mako asked, breathing out as he felt instantly less on edge with her gone.

"I don't know who she is, but if what she just said about Leilani is true, she's apparently strong enough to take on an explosion equal to 10 kilograms of TNT. This could be yet another obstacle to get over." Becoming frustrated with the new hitch she posed in his plans, he crumpled his current bracket and got a new sheet of paper to start a new one.

"Maybe she's a tank without firepower. If she can only take damage but not dish it out, she might not be a problem." Mako tried to offer the bright side of situation, but it wasn't hard to tell he didn't much believe what he was saying.

"Don't tell me she's making you nervous? Even if she has above average strength, there's only so much power someone can have before they peak. Don't forget you have Ricochet. If anyone can topple her, it's you. Power means nothing if you can't attack the other person."

Considering his point, Mako calmed himself. "True. I don't know why I was getting anxious." Taking a moment to regain his nerves, he walked over to the table, where Kisho had begun writing again. "What order are you thinking?"

"Same as before, mostly. I'll have to judge her quirk for myself before I put her on the list for sure." Getting up from his seat, he journeyed to the window to watch, where the girl in question had just taken her place, with Erina donning a worried expression. After a second of discussion between the two, the dummies waiting underneath the ground were brought to the surface as well. A forest of metal bodies now lined the zone completely, looking rather impenetrable. Soon, a see-through barrier was erected around the girl and the zone, separating her from the outside world. A mic was placed inside so she could speak properly to the judges. Looking to the right of the field, it was clear the barrier was the ability of one of the organizers, his hands outstretched and clasped together tightly.

"Alright, ma'am. Name and Quirk, then carry on." The mustache-wearing judge notably scooted his seat backwards, even with the barrier up and guaranteeing his safety.

"Manaka. Warhorse."

"We need your full name, if you will."

"Don't have a first name."

"…very well. Continue."

She gave a final nod to the judges before turning to the army enclosed with her. Taking her time, she cracked her hands and wound up her arms, loosening herself for her act. Mako could feel the dread creeping back into him as he watched her. Kisho was also not feeling particularly good about Manaka's upcoming performance.

Manaka reached her arms towards two of the metal people and put both hands on a dummy, each with all her fingers pointed on their chests in a manner similar to one about to execute a one-inch punch. Which wasn't too far off from her goal.

"Salvo 1: Lance Titan!" She balled her hands up and hit them. With barely any force seeming to be exerted from her, they crumpled. Caving in as if she'd punched a beanbag chair. Grabbing the one on her left, she felt the scrap metal that now made up its composition.

"Only two inches thick. How disappointing. Is this even a test?" With her bare hands, she folded it into a ball and tossed it aside. Then, she reared both arms back, breathing in for exactly ten seconds, preparing to unleash whatever raw power she had stored up.

"Salvo 3. Twin HUEY!" Punching the air in front of her, the rest of the dummies were literally ripped off the ground and sent flying into the far side of the barrier, showing signs of stressing the man holding it up. Each one that hit the wall flattened into a thin sheet of metal, any trace of it having a humanoid form brutally destroyed.

The barrier couldn't handle the force, and shattered after a few more hit its insides, releasing the destructive power into the world. The metal thankfully was thrown opposite the crowd and judges, and careened harmlessly into the sidewall of the stadium seating. The wind, however, blew back against the walls so hard that it almost redirected itself backwards, even just a fraction of its original power still blowing many of the students off their feet. The judges had been placed inside a new barrier, courtesy of the man prioritizing their safety.

"Manaka!" Erina shouted over the howling wind, finally starting to calm itself after the initial break through. "I thought I forbid you from using Salvo 3!"

Not caring for the woman's cries of contempt, a throaty chuckle emanated from her body as she paid no mind to the disgruntled audiences grievances.

"Mayhem. Magnificent."

Up inside the press box, Mako was cowering away from the window, now cracked from the wind pressure generated from Manaka. Kisho was less worried and more just angry.

"Always something else, damn it! No matter. Her brute strength might play against her in a match, so who knows how far she'll get anyway. As a matter of fact…" He took out a new piece of paper and wrote with renewed vigor, his eyes lighting up as he completed the brackets exactly as he needed. "There! I am a genius! You get your third-place spot, I get my battle with Suiiki and my championship, and she gets all the power she wants."

Mako took a peek at his list, running up and down the people he'd guessed would be included. "That's good. Really good. If not a single person from the lower class besides you gets in. But what about the rest of them? I'm sure someone from there will at least qualify. Have you seen U.A's Class B? There's some quirks there that make me question how they're not in 1-A already. I've heard rumors that Tsubame was wrongfully put in the lower class."

"I've never seen most of my classes quirks, so admittedly I'm not sure. But really, this is the most unheard-of hero school in existence. Can we really compare our school to U.A's General Studies, let alone 1-B?"