Happy birthday to meeeeeee! Hope you all enjoy the chapter! We got our first chapter of heroics class, which means team exercises time owo
XI.
Jenga
Arc Theme: Again - Yui
Gosh, Hanabi would never get used to how nice the food here tasted. She'd heard that Lunch Rush, the chef at UA, could make incredible food at the drop of a hat, but Gourmand was proving to be one of the best right after Lunch Rush!
Her breakfast was simple—a bowl of okayu, a bowl of kakitamajiru, a serving of grilled mackerel, four slices of tamagoyaki, a plate of green bean gomaae, pickled daikon and carrot, natto, and a mug of green tea—and frankly it was filling! Hanabi was surprised at how little she was yawning first thing in the morning thanks to her breakfast, and she absently wondered if there was something added in there to make it perk her up a little. But as she looked at the others at her table, Hanabi realised it was just her. Kaiten and Momoiro were still yawning away, and Mirato could barely keep his eyes open as he nodded off between bites of French toast.
"I—Is everyone excited for our heroics class today?" Hanabi tried to broach to the others.
Kaiten grunted, not in a mood to talk, though Hanabi did have to ask when he ever was to begin with. He wasn't exactly antisocial like some of the others, but he wasn't open to talking to a lot of people these past few days either. Beside him, Momoiro did try to show some enthusiasm—but his yawn cut him off mid-cheer, and Momoiro covered his mouth with his hand and mumbled a quiet, "Excuse me," when he was done.
Kaiten was almost done with his breakfast—toast with sliced banana on top, accompanied by a simple cup of black coffee—and he took a swig of his coffee desperately as he held the last of his toast in his other hand. Momoiro began splitting his banana muffin in half, and he set one half on Kaiten's plate. Kaiten hummed in appreciation and stuffed the rest of his toast in his mouth, and he set to work picking at the crumbs of his half of the banana muffin.
"Some of our costumes must've been a hassle to make," Momoiro mused tiredly. He picked at the rest of his breakfast, fried eggs over hash browns and a side of natto, as he leaned his chin on his free hand. "Maybe some of our classmates had complicated designs."
She hoped her costume wasn't too complicated for the support department to make. Hanabi anxiously looked down at her food and hummed. She incorporated facepaint into her costume, so maybe her's wasn't the most complicated? Maybe someone was in the same boat as Lemillion, needing their suit to incorporate their DNA into it, but Hanabi wasn't sure exactly who would have that need. She hadn't asked too much about everyone else's Quirks yet, and the most she knew were Kaiten, Momoiro, and Hibana's Quirks.
Well, Mirato's too. But he made his Quirk very apparent when he first showed up. Most others weren't really bragging all that much about their Quirks.
"What do you think our first exercise will be?" Hanabi asked Momoiro.
Momoiro hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps a team-building exercise?" he suggested.
Hanabi giggled at the suggestion. Well, of course it'd be a team-building exercise. They were at a school that pushed its students to form teams upon graduation! But Momoiro didn't seem very upset by Hanabi's giggling. That was something she'd noticed in the brief moments she'd spoken to him—that he spoke with such patience and respectfulness that it was like you were being spoken to in a customer service voice. He'd do super well with interacting with fans of Pro Heroes, especially with how polite he was. Hanabi could see him being nicknamed the Polite Hero or something.
"I wonder if we'll be rescuing each other using our Quirks," she pondered aloud, "or if it'll be something different."
Everyone looked at Mirato then. His head was nodding up and down, and his eyes were shut as a small snore escaped him. His hand was still moving, but he missed his mouth by a mile and smeared strawberry compote and whipped cream all over his cheek.
Hanabi gave him a soft nudge. Mirato startled awake, eyes wide and searching, and then he relaxed some as he lowered his fork back onto his plate.
"Sorry guys," he yawned. Hanabi grabbed a napkin and reached over to wipe the compote and cream from his face, and Mirato just scrunched up his face like a child who insisted they could do it themselves. Hanabi bit back a smile at how adorable he was being. "I wish I could tell you what we're doing today, but I stayed up all night writing things down."
"Did we get homework or something?" Kaiten asked, alarmed. Mirato shook his head.
"I was writing down a bunch of possible futures," he explained. "My head was killing me, and I don't know what time I went to bed afterwards."
"Why did you feel the need to look into the future, Koizumi-san?" Momoiro asked. He tilted his head, genuinely curious, and Hanabi wouldn't deny also being curious.
If Mirato had decided to look into the future for something, surely it was something important.
"Mugi-chan needs some reassurance," Mirato said through another yawn. Now that he was properly opening his eyes, it was obvious how big the bags under them were. Even his third eye, while closed, had heavy dark circles around it.
It was just a little bit odd. Hanabi didn't recall Mirato spending a lot of time with Mugi, so she wondered why he felt the need to give her reassurance with his future sight. Was she worried about something? Was there something coming in the future that would harm her? Hanabi's heart leapt into her throat. Was she going to be the next Boogeyman victim?
"H—How did that go…?" she asked, nervous now.
"Smooth sailing," Mirato proudly reported, though it was hardly convincing with how sleepy he sounded. "Mugi-chan can rest easy for a while now…"
Kaiten clicked his tongue as Mirato began to doze off again. He slid his half-finished coffee across the table to him, sneering, and Mirato scrunched up his face at it. "C'mon, chug it down," Kaiten demanded. "If you're in a group with any of us, you need to be awake and alert. We can't babysit you, Koizumi."
Mirato whined, but picked up the coffee and gave it a sniff. He scrunched up his face even more, and with one hand pinching his nose shut, Mirato glugged down the coffee in one go. He dropped the mug onto the table and stuck out his tongue, gagging as he did so, and when he opened his eyes and unscrunched his face, he was looking a lot more alert than before.
"Thank you, Kaiten-kun," he groaned, and despite clearly being glad for the pick-me-up and Kaiten lending a hand, he clearly didn't sound happy to have drank it to begin with.
Momoiro picked at the rest of his banana muffin with a frown. "Say, Koizumi-san?" he asked. Mirato looked over at him with a curious hum. "Were you trying to make Eguchi-san feel better about something?"
Mirato nodded fervently, but then brought a finger to his lips in a shushing motion. "I can't say what it is though," he reminded the group. Everyone seemed to be in agreement to not prod—even Hanabi. If the issue wasn't even an issue yet, then preemptively getting in Mugi's face about it was going to cause problems. "But Yoyo-chan gave her a fluffy blanket last night, and Asuka-chan has been giving her extra helpings of dessert after dinner lately."
Momoiro hummed once, contemplative, and he nodded along to what Mirato was saying all the while. Hanabi could see something was working behind his eyes, a plan of sorts forming, and she absently wondered what he planned to do.
Frankly speaking, no one in the class seemed very two-faced. Hibana definitely wore her ego on her sleeve, and Hanabi sort of admired her honesty in that regard, but sometimes she had her doubts. Of all the people she'd spoken to who were very much showing they could disagree with her and still be civil, Hanabi was still facing apprehension about how genuine they were all being. Even now, as Momoiro spoke in his customer service voice and kept himself almost reserved unless Kaiten was involved, Hanabi had to wonder just what exactly he had in store for Mugi.
She hoped Mugi would feel better soon, whenever the difficulty she was going to face cropped up, and out of everyone in the class, Mugi was part of the small group that Hanabi could confidently say were honest to a fault. Unlike Mizuki, who was combative, and Hibana, who was egotistical, Mugi was just… completely incapable of standing up for herself. Of asking someone for help. She hated to say it, but Mugi verged on being a doormat some days and it worried Hanabi.
"She said she likes lilies, right?" Momoiro asked Mirato. Mirato nodded once, intrigued by the question, and Momoiro just smiled softly and waved a dismissive hand. "Don't mind me. I'm just thinking aloud. What time is it? Should we head to class?"
Kaiten made an alarmed sound as he jumped out of his seat and shoved the rest of his half of the banana muffin into his mouth. Hanabi looked up from her plate, over at the clock on the wall closest to them, and she hurriedly shoved the rest of her okayu into her mouth in one gulp. Darn it, she thought! She went through all the trouble of waking up early so she wouldn't be late for class, and she went and got way too distracted at breakfast anyway! She hoped Mononoke would continue to be lenient on her lateness today…
The group of four was sprinting alongside other groups—she recognised some students from 1-A, one of them holding a slice of toast in their mouth while they piggybacked a snoring student whose face was covered in porridge. They barely made it in time to their classrooms, and Hanabi had to admit there was a sense of camaraderie in the two groups wishing each other luck as 1-B's students broke away from the group to enter their class while 1-A's continued sprinting.
Well, they couldn't say they were still asleep now. Hanabi and the others all collapsed into their seats with equal amounts of groaning on their parts, and Mononoke calmly, with a polite smile, shut the door to the class and acted like they'd been in there before the bell had rang.
"You're all so lively this morning," Mononoke joked, and Hanabi's face was flushed red from both the sprint over and the embarrassment of the statement. "Could it be you're all excited for your first practical heroics class?"
Everyone in the class cheered—everyone eager for the class, at least—and Mononoke giggled into his yukata sleeve as the class slowly quietened down again. Hanabi wouldn't deny joining the cheers, albeit quietly, and she watched as Mononoke raised his hands with a flourish.
"Your class will be held in an off-campus training area that served as the location for some of your entrance exams," he explained. "It's all still part of the Zenshi property, of course, but it's not officially part of the campus outside of heroics classes. Our humble Zenshi Academy may not be as big and grandiose as UA, but our illustrious headmistress has poured her heart and soul into upgrading the campus compared to when she attended the school!"
Ah, right, Hanabi had read about that online. Instead of amassing her wealth like most Pro Heroes did, all of Skathi's money as a Pro Hero was donated to the school while the old headmaster was still in charge. The old headmaster wasn't even a Pro Hero, but a graduate from UA's management course who desired a school that focused on team-building and the like. It was no stretch of the imagination to say that Zenshi was basically an agency for interns and rookie Pro Heroes finding their feet in bigger, more illustrious agencies in Japan.
Some great Pro Heroes even started out in teams or as sidekicks, too. It was a very sound methodology for making sure new Pro Heroes fresh out of graduation didn't have any stumbles and made less mistakes on their own.
Mononoke gave the class a wink, and he seemed gleeful about the idea of letting the kids go to their first practical class of the year. Like he was eager to see his class strut their stuff and prove how they'd gotten into Zenshi to each other.
"I may be cutting homeroom short today, but I want you all to have as much time as possible to admire your costumes," he chirped. "Ah, but Shuzenji-kun, Kousaki-kun, your costumes aren't quite ready. Actually, Shuzenji-kun didn't put down anything for his costume…"
Shiki, nonchalant, grinned at his teacher. "You mean the fancy clothing that just gets torn to shreds every time Truck-kun gets too aggressive?"
"If that's what we're calling it, sure," Mononoke deadpanned. "Regardless, you both have your gym uniforms for today. But I hear someone very gifted has been working on your costume, Kousaki-kun, so it should be ready by the next practical class! The support items you asked for are included with the gym uniform, though."
Teru nodded in thanks to Mononoke, though he looked a little crestfallen that his costume wasn't ready yet. Poor guy, Hanabi thought. Momoiro had been right that one of the costumes must've been too complicated to get done before their first heroics class, two days ago.
They didn't sit in the classroom for long after that, though. Everyone was directed out of the room, back outside, and Mononoke guided them to the hall that led to the locker rooms. Unlike the cafeteria, which was a couple of floors below the classrooms and rested comfortably on the ground floor, the locker rooms were on the same floor as each classroom and assigned passcodes for each individual student to access. It wasn't quite the same multiple building deal that UA boasted, but it was a large enough main building that it made sense as to why each year level could comfortably fit into each portion of the campus without issue. Compared to the other classes, which were three letters each beyond the heroics department, the heroics department had a lot of space leftover to fit the locker rooms on the same floor and allow for the students to take a lift directly to the training field closest to the dorms. Students could easily take a trip outside once they suited up en masse, and they wouldn't run into any other students on their way out.
It all felt very important and professional. Hanabi wouldn't deny being a little nervous.
The boys and girls all separated when they reached the lockers, and Hanabi was a bundle of nerves and excitement as she ran her fingers over the material of her costume. Gosh, this was really happening, wasn't it? Even the paint needed for her facepaint was packed in the locker. Hanabi could barely keep her hands steady as she painted the purple stars on her cheeks, and it only sank in after she looked at her reflection in the mirror that this was really happening for real.
This wasn't a dream. But even if it was, this would be the best dream to ever have. She was on cloud nine!
There was a bus waiting for them outside of the outdoor lift, and the students piled into it eagerly and took their seats. Hanabi sat somewhere near the middle of the bus, smiling despite herself as they drew closer and closer to the training grounds just outside of the campus, and when she saw the statuesque form of their headmistress waiting at the entrance of the exam site, her heart was doing somersaults over and over.
This was it. This was it!
It was easy to tell the majority of the class was eager to get a start on their lesson. Some of them were shifting on their feet, some were vibrating with excitement, and some were even hyperventilating from the sheer eagerness they exuded. This was the big event they'd applied to the school for—showy Pro Hero work and showing off their stuff. Where else would they get unrestricted Quik use but a Pro Hero course?
Even though Hanabi had seen her in her costume before, there was something mystical about Skathi's hero costume overall. She'd heard that Skathi's Quirk was called Jötunn, after the Frost Giants in Norse myth, and her eight-foot total height definitely played into it. Apparently Skathi's Quirk was almost going to be simply called Ice Ply when she was younger, but it became obvious that her father's gigantism Quirk had kicked in and mixed with her mother's ice-based Quirk, and Skathi was reclassified with a new Quirk name when she hit her teenage years.
That was about the extent of what people could find about Skathi online, though. It was like everything prior to when she attended Zenshi didn't exist, outside of the story she'd given in an interview about how her Quirk used to be classed as just Ice Ply. Hanabi had to wonder just how secretive the woman was, if she was able to hide her private life almost as well as All Might could back in the day.
Skathi was all leather and bear skin, her thick armour making her look reminiscent of a video game character Taiki had shown Hanabi once, when commenting on how cool the design would be for a costume—something about a final fantasy and the character being referred to as "warrior", though Hanabi was certain now that that was simply the class of the character in the image, not the character's name. A bear skin pelt served as a cape for Skathi, hanging from her shoulders in a way that seemed to swallow up her arms, and hatchets made of ice were already strapped to her waist as a fine mist wafted off of them. Skathi's face was painted blue across her forehead and eyes, and her hair was pushed out of her face and braided into a bun behind her.
It was no wonder she was called the Hero of Jötnar.
Skathi's voice was booming, commanding, as she addressed 1-B in full. Her hands were on her hips, the ground beneath her feet starting to frost over, and Hanabi didn't miss that the tips of her fingers were blue—probably from crafting the ice hatchets at her waist, she reasoned.
"Welcome to your first practical heroics class, 1-B!" Skathi boomed. The class went still and silent under her authoritative tone. "I'll spare you all the details so we can immediately jump into the action, like I'm sure you're all itching to! Today's class will be a heroes versus villains exercise, and the premise will be a hostage situation!"
A hostage situation? Hanabi felt her skin crawl. So it wouldn't be something like securing a payload or protecting a building? It was just a straight-up hostage situation?
A few others seemed concerned, as well, and it was obvious how they were going to be graded on this exercise. Compared to the heroes, the villains in the exercise had a lot more wiggle room…
"You'll be drawing lots," Skathi continued, and then she stomped her foot against the ground. Out of the earth, a pillar of ice sprung forth and stopped just at her waist height, just high enough for the students to reach it. "On the villains' side, your role will be to keep as many hostage dummies under your possession as possible until the end of the exercise. On the heroes' side, your role will be to retrieve as many hostages in as good condition as possible before the exercise ends. I'm going to come right out the gate and say those who get assigned the role of hero will have a higher standard to meet, while those who are assigned as villains simply need to set aside their reservations about a mere label and follow through with the exercise as best as they can."
Well, it was good to get some confirmation, but it was tough to reconcile with it. Hanabi wasn't sure what she wanted to do more—take the easy way out and play the part of the same kind of villain who'd kidnapped her and Taiki not long ago, or push herself to her limits against people who might be tougher than her in an attempt to get hostages out of the building in one piece.
It really was a tough choice. Especially when some of these students gave off the impression of refusing to hold back against anyone, not even the squishy fortune teller or the girl whose Quirk was controlling bees.
Skathi stomped her foot again, and three steps of ice burst from the ground for students to walk up in order to take their lots. She pulled some popsicle sticks—they looked like popsicle sticks from this far away, at least—and dumped them into the pedestal, and Hanabi realised there was a hole in the pedestal for the coloured sections of the lots to stay hidden.
"In order of seat number, come up and collect your lots," Skathi commanded the students. Wasting no time, Arashi Lyoko stumbled forward and reached into the bowl, excitement mixing with the anxiety on his face.
They continued that way until the very end, to Hanabi, and Hanabi was shaking like a leaf as she took the very last popsicle stick from the pedestal. She took a peek at the tip of it, which was coloured green and marked with a black X in the middle of it. What did the X mean?
"The first group will be the blue group," Skathi announced. "Those of you with an O on your blue stick, stand on my right."
Three students walked up to her, and Hanabi was surprised to see Momoiro was one of them. Fancy that, she just had breakfast with the first one to have a go at the exercise! He stood with Shogo and Shiki, and aside from Shiki's rather barebones grey and black tracksuit with the Zenshi logo on the front, the other two looked like the fitting image of a Pro Hero.
Shogo was dressed very similarly to Red Riot, and Hanabi was pleased with herself that she'd been able to ping that immediately. The normally timid Shogo had his bare chest on display, with two gear-shaped shoulder pads decorating his upper body while his hands were left bare and his arms were covered in padded vambraces that reached the backs of his hands. His pants were skin-tight and black, and his boots were also the same shade of black, but there were hints of red in the stripes on the outsides of his pants and the solid red soles of his boots. There was a belt that looked to be made of discs almost, and at the buckle was a large red T in the middle—another element borrowed from Red Riot's costume, Hanabi noted. It was only when Hanabi squinted to get a better look at the discs of his belt that she realised they were miniature cooling systems, and she figured that his Quirk dealt with a good deal of overheating at times.
Momoiro, on the other hand, seemed to lean into the very feminine aspects of his appearance compared to Shogo's masculine. His top half consisted of a crop top that was covered in light titanium pauldrons and a breastplate, while his hands were covered in fingerless gloves and wrist guards. The shorts he wore on his bottom half stopped at his mid-thigh and were a forest green in colour, and the knee-length black boots he wore seemed to have small holes on the ankles. Momoiro accompanied the ensemble with a neckerchief with a thorny vine design woven into it, and he was holding onto a black poncho jacket that was draped over one arm—he'd been wearing it on the way over, but now that he was first to go up, he didn't seem to need it—which also seemed to have embroidered golden roses along its neck and bottom. It was a very revealing outfit, and Hanabi would probably short-fuse if she'd had to wear such an outfit, but Momoiro was so pretty and androgynous that it seemed to almost fit his character. Though Hanabi did recall the few times someone in class called him a girl, he'd gotten uncomfortable and quieter. Was it a contradiction? Or was he making a statement that even in an outfit like this, he was still a man? Whatever the case, Hanabi wouldn't deny he looked great in his Pro Hero outfit, especially since his Quirk dealt with plant growth and control.
Skathi called out again, "Those with a blue X on their lot, stand on my left!"
This time three more people came out: Hibana, Tora and Kiaria. Hanabi was shaking with excitement. Ever since seeing Hibana use her Quirk so efficiently against Bebe, who was their upperclassman, Hanabi had thought to herself that Hibana was going to be a strong Pro Hero. She wanted to embody a lot of the confidence and flair that Hibana exuded, but sometimes it felt so mortifying to say such out of pocket things in order to drive a point home.
Of the two legacy Pro Heroes in the trio, Kiaria looked more like her father in terms of costume than Tora did his own parents. Kiaria had a long-sleeved shirt that had armour along the arms and across her stomach, and over the top of it she wore a black jacket that was reminiscent of Hawks' iconic brown jacket—though the fur lining it was the same red as Kiaria's wings as opposed to the white on Hawk's costume. She seemed to be wearing black gloves, and there appeared to be padding along the knuckles and wrist, but Hanabi wasn't too sure. Her form-fitting black cargo pants looked like they had enough pocket space for small items and support items she might pick up and use on the fly, and her cargo pants were tucked into a pair of black boots that were accented with bold red laces on the front. The boots appeared to be armoured like her shirt was, and on her head, Kiaria wore a grey visor that was similar to the one Hawks was well known for wearing—though the yellow that would've been on Hawks' headphones that connected to the visor was now a bold red to match her wings.
It was actually really inspiring, how much of her father was incorporated into the costume. Hanabi recalled Kiaria saying her goal was to let him retire once she graduated from Zenshi.
Tora's costume was more separated from his parents, Pixie-Bob and Lynx, however. He wore a sleeveless jumpsuit that was primarily black at the pants, with orange crack designs that reminded Hanabi of pictures seen online of cooled volcanic sludge—ashy black on the outside, but a glowing orange through the cracks of dried lava on the top—and as the jumpsuit went higher, the pitch black design on his upper half was accentuated with orange tiger stripes instead of magma patterns. There was a stylised orange tiger paw in the middle of his chest, a symbol of which wild, wild pussycat he was going to take up the moniker of, and along his arms were gloves that went halfway up to his biceps—orange at the base, but with black plates spread out along the design that were more pronounced than the patterns on his pants. Was it something implemented for his Quirk? Perhaps. It evoked the same cracked laval design as his pants. His shoes were a plain orange, and along his legs there were shin guards to protect his lower half; his belt also seemed to be made with the same material as the raised sections on his gloves. On his face was an orange visor over his eyes, and there were grey coverings on his ears that Hanabi assumed were for comms and the like.
If she had to guess, his Quirk was something to do with heat? It very much felt like he was evoking lava imagery with the… overt allusions to it in his costume. That, or he must've thought lava was badass. Hanabi could see it—UFOriko's costume wasn't based on her Quirk, but she did have a love for aliens and all things interdimensional, and it showed in her costume.
Finally, out of the lineup of students with a blue X, Hibana stood out the most to Hanabi. She looked every bit like a showman, with her high-waisted balloon shorts printed in two different patterns—ultramarine in full, but her left side was dotted with white stars while the right side was lined with red horizontal stripes, resembling the United States flag in a way. She had a wide white belt around her waist with compacts lining it, probably for the toys she used for her Quirk, and above that she wore a white tube top that Hanabi had to assume had some hidden compartments in it as well. Hibana could use cards for her Quirk, actual playing cards, so it made sense if her tube top had some sections sewn into it to hide stray cards! On top of the tube top was a short red and ultramarine jacket with full sleeves, and although none of them had come up with their hero names yet, Hibana seemed to have already settled on her own: Entertainer. It was embroidered in gold on the back of the jacket, and Hibana seemed to have two more compacts for her game pieces on either arm, strapped in the same spot a showman's arm band might be placed in a circus. On her legs were mismatched thigh-high socks, with the left being black with horizontal red stripes and the right being black with blue stars dotting it, and on her feet were light blue Ugg boots that were lined with black along their edges. To top the whole outfit off, Hibana wore mismatched red and blue gloves on her hands and a blackened visor helmet that covered the upper half of her face, with an UNO-themed paint job along the fastenings, and protective straps around her knees.
Gosh, she really did look every bit the entertainer she wanted to emulate…
"Those with the O's on their lots will play the role of heroes for this exercise," Skathi announced. The trio to her right let out varying reactions to the announcement, with Shogo showing his nerves acting up and Shiki doing air punches out of excitement. "Those with the X's on their lots will play the role of villains. Blue villains, your assigned area in the exam site will be the commercial district—the hostages will be in the mock police station at the centre."
The three villain students marched their ways into the area, and Skathi let out a low sigh as she turned to the rest of the class.
"While they set up, everyone comes with me," she went on. "We'll be watching remotely underground and taking notes from there."
Hanabi let out a steeling breath and slapped her cheeks at the same time. Okay, time to get serious! Time to pay a ton of attention and figure out where things went wrong—or right—for this group!
But that X on her popsicle stick… Ugh, was she going to have to be a villain? This was a lot to take in…
This wasn't looking too great.
Kiaria had her visor pushed up atop her head, her gloved hands rubbing at her forehead and pinching the bridge of her nose, and all she could do was sit there as the ginger girl in front of her ranted and raved about how important it was that she and Tora do everything they were told to the letter. There was controlling and neurotic, and then there was this.
Kiaria wouldn't deny that she'd assumed this would be an open-and-shut exercise with the three of them. From what she'd heard of Hibana's Quirk, it was rather versatile in what it could be used for; Tora's Quirk was apparently a mix of both of his parents' Quirks, and Pixie-Bob's level of power with Earth Flow was nothing to shrug at. Add some heat into the mix? It was a recipe for victory served on a silver platter. Kiaria had even seen some of these skills in the entrance exam!
But now? Oh, now she was regretting thinking that Hibana, who was honest and callous to a fault, would be cooperative in a group setting.
"Are you even listening, Takami?" Hibana snapped at her. Kiaria lowered her hands and sent a dry glare Hibana's way. "Oh, drop the dumb look on your face. You've got the easiest task out of the three of us."
"My hero," Kiaria deadpanned. "I shudder to think what obstacles I'd have to overcome with my horrible, no-good Quirk without your stalwart guidance, your majesty."
"Zip it, Chicken Little," Hibana scoffed. "If you're not going to say anything productive, then don't say anything at all."
Kiaria held up her hands in surrender, turning away from Hibana with a huff. They were inside the makeshift police station at the exam site, and in the small holding cell on the far side of the room were ten dummies made of fabric and wood. They had some weight to them, evenly distributed to feel like actual people, and they were all of varying sizes and weight. Some were clearly children dressed in grade school uniforms, and others were clearly police officers and salarymen alike. Tora was sitting with them, idly playing with the arms of one of the grade schooler puppets—playing patty cake, actually, which Kiaria admitted was a little cute, if off-topic overall.
And Hibana seemed to think the same thing, because she turned her ire towards Tora next.
"Can you take this seriously?" Hibana snapped. "We have a chance to prove we're not 1-B material right now!"
"Because we're totally 1-C material," Kiaria muttered.
"I said zip it!" Hibana was glaring at her through her visor, and Kiaria decided to be a little cheeky about it. Mimicking her father from his interviews as the Number Two, Kiaria reached up and motioned to zipping her lips, moving her mouth as though pulling a zipper taut. Hibana rolled her eyes heavily at the sight, but Tora was paying attention now.
"Well, your plan involves a lot of heavy lifting on your part, Kirameki-san," he reasoned. "So I should be able to have a little fun, right? Playing patty cake isn't hurting anyone."
"We're supposed to be leaning into our roles as villains here," Hibana reminded him. "Instead of playing patty cake with that grade schooler, you should be using her as a human shield when the heroes show up!"
Tora looked at her in horror. He hugged the grade schooler puppet close to his chest. "I would never do that to A-ko!"
Kiaria snorted softly. Hibana glared at her again, and she turned her head away to hide her smile.
"Then do it to B-ko or C-ko, or whatever you've named the other puppets," Hibana told him. "You can't play favourites with them. You should be making it harder for the heroes to take them from us."
"Yeah, but what can they really do in this setting?" Tora waved the puppet's arms around as though it were explaining this to Hibana instead of him. "Bara-san needs dirt to make plants grow, and this police station is all concrete and metal. Shuzenji-san's Quirk is healing, not harming, so the best he can do is kiss the boo-boos away on the puppets. And… Hey, Takami-san, do we know Shizu-san's Quirk?"
Hibana groaned and ran her hands down her face. "This is the kind of complacency that makes me feel the need to take charge," she grumbled. "If you can't take it seriously, how am I supposed to show Skathi that I'm 1-A material?"
"You know she can hear all this, right?" Kiaria pointed out.
"Make me say it a third time, I dare you," Hibana snapped.
"We have a pretty good advantage of having them locked up in a cell," Tora reasoned. "And you wanted me to stand guard with the puppets, so I can easily make an earth wall to block them if they make it past the bars."
"With what earth, idiot?" Hibana gestured to the walls of the room. The walls that were very much concrete and brick. "You just said Bara has no dirt to make plants grow from. Your Quirk is earth manipulation. Earth is dirt."
Tora scrunched up his face and looked away. Kiaria had had enough of this.
She stepped between Hibana and Tora, effectively blocking the way to the cells that Tora was chilling out in, and she flared out her wings to block Hibana's view of Tora. Maybe the position she held her wings in also happened to be the same way a bird would ward off predators too. Maybe.
"Are you seriously just doing this for the recognition?" Kiaria demanded. "Because believe me, none of us have any choice but to recognise you, Miss Poster Child."
Hibana clicked her tongue. "Poster child of what, hm? Your insult falls a little flat when you can't even get your details right."
Oh, Kiaria knew enough details. Details that she knew would get under Hibana's skin.
Kiaria took a gracious bow and cooed, "My mistake, Vermillion Bitch."
Hibana sucked in a sharp breath and clenched her hands at her side. She glared down at Kiaria as Kiaria smiled sweetly up at her, and Tora finally decided to jump in to quell the unrest a little. Not that it would do much good. Kiaria was good at picking when people were at their breaking points, and Hibana definitely had an aversion to this nickname in particular. She'd entertained using the Vermillion Doll moniker, if only because Hibana had gone on record to make an interviewer cry for calling her that and promptly had the moniker changed to Vermillion Madonna, but sometimes you just had to be quick and straight to the point.
And what was more straight to the point than calling someone a bitch?
Kiaria stood back up, still smiling sweetly, and she chirped at Hibana, "So, that plan of yours?"
Hibana scoffed and turned on her heel, stomping away from the duo in a huff.
"I don't need either of you," she seethed. "You're both useless anyway. What good are two brats riding their parents' coattails for relevancy?"
Tora bristled at the statement, letting out a loud, "Hey! We're not our parents!"
"But we can definitely claim more in terms of warrantedness when it comes to our egos," Kiaria pointed out. "Tell me, who are you the child of, Kirameki? Did your mother moonlight as a vigilante and none of us noticed? Did your father make a breakthrough as a rookie Pro Hero, only to stop right before he started his new business? Have you even met a Pro Hero before? Not just been photoshopped next to them? What experience do you even have that can back up that monumental superiority complex raging around in that empty little head of yours?"
Hibana paused at the doorway when Kiaria finished, hand gripping the handle tightly enough that it looked like it was shaking.
She reached up with her other hand, flicked her visor down, and she opened the door with a shaky sigh.
"I have a failure to learn from," Hibana replied cooly. "Do either of you?"
Kiaria wouldn't deny that her wings fluffed up at the response. Now there was an interesting reply. Someone as neurotic as Hibana, admitting a flaw? Unheard of. And yet she just did, and as a rebuttal to Kiaria's own critiques of her, no less.
Hibana stepped outside of the door, and she was more confident now as she went on, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and solo the three stooges outside. Clearly I have to do everything around here. Oh, and Ono? A-ko better be burned to a crisp when I get back."
She slammed the door behind her. Kiaria let out a heavy sigh and lowered her wings, and Tora tripped past her before catching himself against a desk nearby.
"Did we really need to fight?" Tora demanded, exasperated. Kiaria crossed her arms over her chest, fighting back a pout, and Tora got right up in her face in response. "Takami-san, we really needed to work as a team to pass this class!"
"We can still pass," Kiaria mumbled sourly. "It just won't be with Kirameki."
Tora lifted his visor with his cheeks huffed out, matching her own pout with a greater one of his own. "Excluding people doesn't sit well with me!"
Oh, he would be a bleeding heart type. Kiaria sighed again and reached up to rub at her brow.
"Look, Ono-san, sometimes we can't help when people get like that," she insisted. Tora backed away from her, giving her some space, but he still looked every bit like a kicked puppy. Clearly shit-talking Hibana wasn't going to get her anywhere, and frankly, Kiaria was getting tired of talking about her at all. "When they set out on a mission to prove they're the best, it's because they wanna impress someone. And since a pretty girl like her has everything she could possibly ask for, my best bet is that she wants to impress someone watching the feed with Skathi."
Tora froze. Quietly, he asked, "Impress someone?"
That was a soft spot, eh? Now that Kiaria thought about it, there was that whole thing when the two first met about one of the boys in their class. Kiaria made a show of thinking on it, scrunching up her face.
"It just doesn't make sense, though," she pondered aloud. "We've all just met each other, and it's only been a few days. And something tells me a girl like that doesn't know the first thing about love at first sight and the like… Bet she doesn't even know what love is supposed to be to begin with, actually, if she grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth."
Tora shrank in on himself, pout falling into something closer to realisation as he rubbed his chin.
"Middle school…" he muttered.
"Hm?" Kiaria looked at him with her brows raised. She already knew all of this from observations—Hibana was lenient with Miyuki so far, and she was very strongly opinionated on who could spend time around Teruki when it wasn't her filling that role—but playing dumb never hurt anyone. "What is it, Ono-san?"
Tora flinched and waved a hand dismissively. "N—Nothing," he insisted. And then, after an uncomfortable pause, he tugged at Kiaria's sleeve to prevent her from checking on the puppets. "H—Hey, Takami-san, if we wanted to, uh… Make sure Kirameki-san didn't… Get to impress someone… What would we do?"
Kiaria tilted her head to the side, eyes wide. "Logically, you'd be more impressive than she is," she told him simply.
That seemed to light a fire under Tora. He nodded once, determined, but paused to check on Kiaria again as he let go of her sleeve.
"Then, do you mind if I go after her?" he asked. "I can't be more impressive than her if she's on her own fighting the other three."
Sure, that was an option. But Kiaria chuckled and shook her head.
"That's the logical way of doing it," she pointed out. "But we're villains today, and villains don't always rely on logic. But you know what they do rely on?"
Tora looked at her with wide eyes, waiting for her to continue.
Kiaria gave a flourishing gesture to the puppets and smiled. "Villains rely on trickery and deceit, and we're going to be more impressive than Kirameki by tricking the heroes!"
That idea seemed to resonate well with Tora. He was clapping emphatically, eyes sparkling as he gave her an impressed coo. Kiaria nodded along with his clapping, pleased to have him on her side, and she set to work formulating a plan with him as they waited for Hibana's resounding ass-kicking to finish up. The plan was going to be simple: They'd follow Hibana's plan, but they were tweaking it a little. All things considered, it wasn't a bad plan; it just firmly placed Hibana as the leader and main character of the group instead of part of a cohesive team, and teamwork made the dream work.
"We're going to split up the hostages between the two of us," Kiaria explained. "Keeping them all in one place isn't a good idea, especially if the heroes get past all three of us, and we weren't told we weren't allowed to move them."
Tora nodded along with her. "Some of them weigh differently as well, so it stands to reason that there's only so much of each one we can take. How strong are you, Takami-san?"
"It's pretty touch-and-go with my physical strength," she reasoned. "But my feathers can carry the weight of an adult man for a short period of time. It's more telekinesis with those than physical power."
Tora hummed. "Then, if I have to move five of them, I wanna take the ones that are small. I can probably carry two at a time, and I can wrap the third one around my shoulders to carry on my back to the next location."
It was a good idea, but time consuming. And if one of the heroes spotted him, Tora was cooked.
Cooked… Kiaria glanced at him, then at the concrete floor of the cell.
"Hey, test something for me," she requested. Tora tilted his head at her and knelt onto the ground next to her, and she gave the floor a knock with her fist. "I wanna see if you can melt the concrete with your heating aspect."
Tora was uneasy, but he pressed his palm flat against the concrete floor and activated his Quirk. Heat radiated from him in waves, not enough to be unbearable but enough to be noticeable, and when he pulled his hand away, there was a bright orange hand-shaped mark on the floor. As it cooled down away from his touch, it slowly turned back to the dull grey that the rest of the floor was coloured.
Kiaria rubbed her chin and looked back to the puppets. Then she looked at Tora.
"You don't have to carry them outside," she told him. She pointed to the floor. "You can just go underground with them."
He seemed surprised by the idea. Tora looked around nervously, stammering out excuses as to why he didn't think he could do it, and when she rebuked his concern about harming the puppets as being unnecessary due to the villain roles they were playing, Tora seemed to droop and get nervous even more.
Was it a bad plan? No, Kiaria was certain this would give them a definitive win, if not a draw. Anything was better than a loss, right? So why was he hesitating?
She let out a breath and grabbed his hand, holding it gently in her own. Tora was blushing, though it didn't seem to be out of his heart skipping a beat or anything—more out of shame and nervousness.
"Ono-san, what's the real reason?" she asked. "I won't laugh or judge you."
Tora scrunched up his face and looked at the ground, where the palm print was visible, and he seemed to choke on his words as he spoke.
"W—Will you leave me on my own underground?" he asked. "It—I mean—It'll be pretty dark and quiet and cramped…"
Claustrophobia? Nyctophobia? A combination of the two? Whatever it was, Kiaria had to nip it in the bud so that he could last underground for at least ten minutes.
She smiled at him, reaching up with her other hand to her headphones, and she gave them a tap gently. Then she reached over and tapped Tora's own ear pieces, and he blinked in surprise.
"I'll talk to you the whole time you're down there," she reassured him. "If you want, we can make a game of it. Have you ever played I Spy without being able to see what the other person is spying?"
Tora shook his head slowly. Kiaria giggled.
"It's definitely challenging and distracting," she explained. "My dad played it with me while he was teaching me how to fly. He could go so much farther than I could, and while I was up above the clouds, he'd call out things in the area for me to guess. And before I knew it, I was a natural in the air."
He looked away from her, still obviously scared, but he seemed to be considering it.
"Do I… get something as a prize if I guess anything right?" he asked.
Well, now he was just giving himself a goal to actually do it. Kiaria was impressed.
"How about… one free flight somewhere?" she suggested.
Tora scrunched up his face. That was a no if she ever saw one.
And then she thought of something that would get his attention. Kiaria grinned knowingly, and she had to hold back a chuckle as she listed her improved prize for him.
"I'll split the cake pops Kousaki-san makes for me with you."
That got Tora's attention immediately. He jumped to his feet, pumping a fist in the air, and he let out an energetic, "Let's do this!"
She was giving them a run for their money, he had to give her that. But she was just one person, and no matter how many UNO clones she made of herself, they'd run out eventually.
Hibana had managed to make about fifteen clones of herself with the Uno cards, and when she busted out the Wild Card and copied Momoiro's Quirk? Man, Shiki had never been dismembered so cleanly in his life. This was going in the memories he recalled fondly, he thought as he laid on the ground. His arms were slowly growing back, and his legs were almost done reforming as Shogo hovered over him protectively.
"What do we do?" he asked, freaking out entirely.
Shiki just smiled up at him and, with the bones forming his hand finally able to be moved by the tendons that had reformed, gave the boy a bony thumbs up.
"Absolutely nothing!" Shiki cheered. "It's built to kick in non-stop, bay-bee!"
That was the best way he could describe his Quirk without overwhelming the poor boy with information.
Momoiro was knocked back towards them by a hammer one of the Hibana clones was wielding. He slid along the ground with a groan, coughing and dry heaving as he clutched his stomach, and Shiki rolled onto his side to take a look at him.
"You need a smooch, bud?" he asked innocently.
"What?" Momoiro choked.
"A smooch. You want one?"
"Now's not the time, Shuzenji-san!" Shogo wept.
The muscles on his hand had mostly reformed enough for Shiki to push himself back up into a sitting position. The dirt and cement hitting the raw nerves, though? Not a fun time. If he hadn't gotten used to the sensation of things touching the direct nerves even just a little, Shiki would've been a screaming, sobbing mess right about now.
"It's my Quirk, so now's the perfect time," he argued. He grabbed Momoiro's face and leaned down, and Momorio looked about ready to puke from having raw, bloody muscles clamp onto his face. "Pucker up, buddy."
Momoiro's cheeks did expand as he just about got ready to puke, but Shiki was quick enough to peck him on the forehead and hit him with that good revitalising kissy stuff. Momorio immediately rolled onto his other side after Shiki let go of his face, and he hurled chunks almost as soon as he turned away from Shiki.
Shogo was shaking like a leaf above Shiki as Shiki flexed his arms, the skin slowly layering over the muscle. Shiki gave him a bright smile.
"You need any too?" he asked.
Shogo shook his head so fast that Shiki swore he heard something pop in his neck.
Shiki shrugged. If he was sure, he thought.
Something soared through the air towards them, and Shogo let out a startled yelp as he jumped in front of Momoiro and Shiki and caught the object. His arms ballooned into larger proportions, and Shiki wouldn't deny being intrigued as Shogo caught the large plank of wood—ignoring the question of where such a plank of wood came from. He shuffled over to Shogo on his bloody feet, and he bobbed up and down beneath the plank as he looked at Shogo's arms.
"Muscle density manipulation?" he asked. "Muscle enlargement? Oh! Limb enlargement?"
Shogo let out a groan as he dropped the plank next to them, and his arms returned to their normal size with a bit of effort. He looked at Shiki helplessly as Momoiro continued to hurl chunks behind them.
"Density manipulation," he said, and it was the first solid sentence Shiki had heard him speak without stuttering. "Up to five times their normal capacity."
Shiki gasped excitedly. "A five-hundred percent rate?" he echoed, impressed. "You and me gotta spar some time! I'd love to know how it'd feel to be slapped with a hand at five times a human's capacity can manage!"
The poor boy seemed appalled by the idea. "I would never, Sh—Shuzenji-san!" he stammered. "I can't even stand to swat a fly!"
"Aw, really?" Shiki pouted and hung his head. "More power to you, but dang it all…"
From where he was sitting, Momoiro managed to croak, "Didn't you take a Hippocratic oath?"
"Not towards myself!" Shiki cheered. "I'm free game to do unethical testing on myself!"
Another log came flying towards them, but this one landed on the other side of the first one. It slid to a stop closest to Momoiro, and Shogo hurried over to lift Momoiro into his arms and huddle Shiki closer to them as more logs hurtled towards them. With each one that landed near them, Shiki could see what the plan was behind Hibana's movements.
She was trying to bury them. And if he was correct, these were jenga planks.
In what world did making jenga into a Quirk application translate into altering their size?
Shiki was on his feet proper as he gave Shogo a shove, pushing the boy out of the way of the last jenga plank that landed on top of Shiki—enclosing the little space left for them to have been able to escape from in the process. Shiki felt his bones break and his organs pierced, but he kept his eyes on Shogo and Momoiro as the boys stumbled out of the path of the planks and debris.
"Oh my God," Momoiro was gasping as Shogo set him down. "Oh my God."
Shogo hurried back to the jenga pile, and Shiki watched as he tried to lift the large plank from his body. The pressure lifting from his body was intense, enough that Shiki almost let a death rattle slip out of his throat, and Shogo panicked when he heard the start of it.
Despite knowing he had to reassure Shogo of what to do, his lungs were partially crushed right now. Shiki stared up at the boy, wheezing for air, and he spied just past his head something in the sky. He squinted, trying to make sense of it, and felt his lower half start to tear from underneath the plank like paper under pressure. That was a person up there, wasn't it? Was that Kiaria? Was she watching them?
If she was reporting to Hibana, Hibana would've continued the onslaught of jenga planks. Were they not working together?
He grabbed Shogo's hand before Shogo could try lifting the plank, and Shogo froze in fright. Shiki traced his palm, writing out a simple message—she might not know you got out—before collapsing to the ground in order to focus on tearing his upper half from the pile and reforming his lower half. And then maybe finding some pants.
He watched Shogo pull Momoiro aside so they could focus on grabbing the hostages and getting them out of the area, and not even five minutes had passed since they disappeared into a nearby building before Hibana's form was visible over the horizon.
Shiki had pulled himself out from the pile with great effort, and he was wiggling his feet happily as he watched Hibana approach with a disgusted expression. She was flanked by ten of her clones, the other five likely still guarding the police station.
"Put on some pants, you damn pervert," she ordered him.
Shiki beamed at her as he stood up and held a hand over his privates. "Volunteering yours?" he asked.
She just sneered at him as one of the clones, which was wielding a giant mallet, rushed towards him at full speed.
War of attrition? Shiki could confidently win that kind of war.
He raised a hand and let the giant mallet slam into it, snapping the arm in half as it dangled limply from the bone. The Hibana clone flinched, trying to take a step back, but Shiki's other hand darted out and grabbed her by the collar. He slammed a knee into her gut over and over until she dropped the hammer, and then Shiki tossed her over his shoulder like a piece of trash before using his newly reformed hand to motion for the next Hibana to charge him.
The real Hibana, who was glaring daggers at him from the back of the group, coldly told him, "Since you're so durable, it should be fine if I get a little rough."
"Don't threaten me with a good time," Shiki said.
And then he charged straight for her, tackling two of the Hibana clones and shoving them into other clones to knock the crowd over.
It appeared that none of the clones were the ones with the plant Quirk copied from Momoiro, and Shiki bowled them over and ragdolled them with ease as the real Hibana began going through scrabble tiles like they were going out of fashion.
Big wall—Shiki enhanced his body and smashed through the bricks, and half of his face peeled off as he did so.
Harpoon—as soon as Hibana fired it and the harpoon pierced his gut, Shiki grabbed the rope and gave it a sharp tug, dragging her towards him until she let go of the rope herself.
Barb wire fence—Shiki tore the harpoon from his gut and used it to slash through the fence, forcing his way through with a giggle.
Molotov—despite the fire continuing to burn on Shiki's skin when the bottle landed on him, he still advanced on Hibana with vigour.
Hibana was getting frustrated as her clones proved useless against a tank like Shiki, and she was running out of ideas with her low amount of scrabble tiles to work with. She started running, putting some distance between herself and Shiki, and as Shiki leisurely gave chase, he took off the jacket of his uniform and tied it modestly around his waist. Now he wasn't doing a Lemillion, he thought with pride. Grandma would be proud of him for being so forward-thinking.
Hibana finally paused, though, and she seemed to realise what she was working with as she dropped to the ground and began furiously arranging the scrabble tiles in order. She was gritting her teeth, frustrated, and as Shiki came to a stop in front of her, he saw the words and let out a low whistle.
Falling building.
Two seconds passed. Five. And then Hibana was looking up at Shiki—past him, at Kiaria, as she gestured for the girl to fly away. Shiki looked up just in time to see Kiaria glide away, back towards the police station, and then he looked down at Hibana again with a smile.
"Was that one too complex, or…?" he asked, trailing off. He didn't want to be rude. What Hibana had managed so far was actually rather memorable. He'd never been harpooned before, and now he could cross it off his bucket list.
"How do the villains usually say it?" Hibana muttered, glaring through her visor at him with venom and wounded pride. "If I can't win, I'll just take you down with me?"
Shiki blinked, surprised by how much she was leaning into the bit. And then out of nowhere, the sun was blocked out by a large object above him. He looked up, stunned at the sheer size of the tower that was falling towards them, and Shiki knew it would crush Hibana beyond a shadow of a doubt as the building—which was a perfect replica of the mock hero agency in the exam site—fell towards them at a startling speed.
He grabbed her and, despite her protests and screams to stop touching her, angled them both so that they'd be hit with a window rather than concrete and metal. Shiki sucked in a deep breath, curling in on himself and tucking Hibana underneath him, and the building crashed on top of them with a horrible and resounding boom.
"She's lost her mind," Kiaria's voice came through the earpiece.
Tora felt the rumble from where he was sitting, curled up in a ball in the dark as he cuddled the puppets. Whatever Hibana was doing, it was seriously giving him some reservations about agreeing to Kiaria's plan. Did Hibana intend on doing this even if they'd followed along with her plan? Because if so, Tora had some complaints!
"What'd she do?" he demanded, trying to keep his breathing steady. Even though he had a small hole above him for air, he didn't want to waste it all freaking out over nothing. "I felt it from here."
Not that where he'd felt it from had been a big concern. Tora had opened up a hole under the cell to hide himself and the puppets in, and he'd closed it up to the best of his abilities to make it look like he'd left with the puppets rather than hidden with them underground. But even with all the work he'd put into it, Tora was starting to worry about the structural integrity of his little burrow.
"She made a building appear in the sky and crushed herself and Shuzenji-san," Kiaria reported. Tora was alarmed.
"Are they okay?!" he shouted. Kiaria was laughing on the other side as she likely flew back for a better look.
"Yeah, they're fine. She's out cold, but he's regenerating and dragging their asses out of the wreck." Kiaria paused. "Ah, also, keep the volume level down. The other two went ahead without him. They figured out I wasn't reporting their status to her and booked it while she thought she trapped them under a jenga pile."
Tora sighed heavily and laid down on top of one of the puppets. Man, they really could've had this in the bag if they'd just worked together. He didn't think Hibana was totally in the wrong for taking charge, especially since Tora and Kiaria weren't speaking up very quickly about their own ideas, but all of this… Impressing Teru or not, this was going a bit too far. What if she'd killed Shiki back there? What if she'd killed Shogo and Momoiro with the jenga pieces?
What was she even doing at a school for building teams at graduation when she was so set on being the strongest on her own?
"Do you wanna keep playing I Spy?" Kiaria asked him. Tora closed his eyes and hummed, which was all the confirmation she seemed to need. "Let's see… I spy something… Red."
Tora cringed. "It's not blood, is it?"
"I mean, there's a lot of blood all over the place from Shuzenji-san's Quirk, but nah, that wasn't it," she said. Tora let out a relieved sigh. "Do you need another hint?"
"No, I think I got it. Not a lot of red things out in this area, actually." He glared at the little puppet in the red dress, and he shook his head. No, she wouldn't pick something she couldn't actually see. His guess would be correct. "Is it Bara-san?"
"Yep. He's moving towards the police station. It looks like Shizu-san managed to pull up some cement and expose some dirt for him."
Aw, how nice. Tora didn't know Shogo had it in him.
"What's the next one?" he asked.
Kiaria took a moment, and he wondered if she was distracted. But then she came back with, "Okay, I spy something… Pretty."
Tora frowned. "Is it Bara-san's Quirk?" he deadpanned.
Kiaria laughed sheepishly. "It's a little hard to come up with stuff when they're getting closer to you."
And right on cue, Tora heard footsteps echo through the small hole he'd left for air. Shogo and Momoiro barrelled into the room, and Momoiro let out a distressed sound as he walked over the top of the warped concrete and melted bars.
"What in the world happened?" he asked, incredulous.
Shogo was quiet as he stomped through the area. Tora stared up at the ceiling of his little burrow, clutching the puppets closely together, and he pursed his lips as he tried to think of how to quietly tell Kiaria they were right above him without being too loud.
Frankly, unless they already knew about the heating aspect of his Quirk like Kiaria did, they shouldn't be able to guess he was right beneath them. Tora kept the heating aspect pretty underwraps whenever possible, after all.
Or so he thought. Shogo seemed to take his time looking, and Momoiro was stressing about how there were only a few minutes left for their turn and that he'd already wasted Shiki and Shogo's time throwing up all over the place (ew, Tora thought, TMI), and now he was apologising profusely to Shogo for messing things up. Shogo was just quiet, though, and he only really spoke up when Momoiro let out a quiet, worried, "Shizu-san?"
Shogo stomped down on the cement floor. Tora heard it echo in the cavern.
"Ono-san's Quirk," Shogo said gently. "His mother is Pixie-Bob and his father is Lynx, and they have earth manipulation and heating Quirks respectively. So if Ono-san was to be a perfect mix of the two…"
He stomped again, and Tora squeaked as he heard the cement crack. He shouldn't have made the burrow so close to the surface… He should've gone deeper into the ground with it!
"Get your Quirk ready, Bara-san," Shogo informed Momoiro, and Tora tensed up as he wrapped one of the puppets around himself and prepared to rush out of the hole in one go. "I'm going to make a hole."
Not on Tora's watch! Tora made sure the slowly melting cement was able to get a good grip on the puppets, and he stanced himself up as he stared at the ceiling of his burrow. He heard a shift in the weight distribution—Momoiro leaving, Shogo using his Quirk—and just as Shogo counted to three to himself, Tora surged the warm cement and the puppets through the hole Shogo made with his fists.
A vine whipped out and snaked around Tora's waist, pinning his arms to his sides, but he and the puppets were hovering in the air for a good few seconds thanks to the force he'd pushed the group out of the hole with. Shogo stumbled and fell into the hole, landing face-first at the bottom, and as Momoiro tried to reach for the puppets with more vines, Tora burned through the vines and pressed a button on his earpiece.
"Takami-san!" he called.
Almost in an instant, red feathers darted into the building and crowded Momoiro, slicing at the vines he was manipulating before piercing through his costume and throwing him to the far wall. More feathers pierced through the surface clothing of the puppets, yanking them out of the building on their ways back out, and Tora dropped to the ground with a grunt. He jumped back to his feet, stumbling into a sprint, and as Momoiro tried to throw more vines at him, more feathers came back for round two and sliced right through them.
It was only when he burst outside with a gasp and a body tackled him that he realised Kiaria intended to bring him up into the air with the puppets. Tora clung to her desperately, and she held him as best as she could as she ascended into the air again. A vine managed to snake around her ankle, dragging her back down to the pavement, and Tora panicked as Kiaria clearly tried to put in some effort.
He didn't need to help her, though. With a powerful flex of her wings, Kiaria rocketed them into the sky and snapped the vine from its roots. The remnants dangled from her ankle as she and Tora finally reached a height Momoiro's vines couldn't climb.
Kiaria looked pained, though, and Tora still felt panic in his chest.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Kiaria winced as she tried to roll her foot. "I think I dislocated the ankle," she said.
That wasn't good. Tora hugged her tight as she continued to carry him through the sky, and behind her, he could see the ten puppets hovering in the air in tow.
"Are they too heavy?" he asked. "We only have to hold out for a couple minutes."
"I think it'll hurt more when I'm on solid ground," Kiaria admitted. "But my wings are getting a little sore after that push back there… And it's not a large amount of feathers, but I'm hitting a point where I can only glide now…"
Tora kicked his legs out in protest. "Glide us to the ground, then!" he scolded her. "The quicker we get down, the quicker we can get an ice pack for your foot!"
"Just a bit longer," she insisted. "And then I'll drop us right on top of Shuzenji. He'll fix me right up."
They glided through the air like that, holding each other tightly as Tora stared at the puppets. He saw little A-ko dangling from her dress's collar, and he saw the policeman drift with the wind as it blew against Kiaria's back. Not a single one of them was burned, and somehow they'd managed to keep all ten of them out of the heroes' reach.
Finally, when two minutes passed, an announcement rang through the area.
"Villains win!" Skathi's voice boomed. "Everyone wrap things up and make your way to the observation room!"
Kiaria finally descended, and they both tumbled to the ground in a heap as the puppets dropped with them. Her feathers from both the puppets and Momoiro returned to her wings, and Kiaria rolled off of Tora as she groaned in pain.
Tora wasted no time jumping to his feet and sprinting towards the giant toppled building nearby. As soon as he saw Shiki, he started crying and pleading for him to hurry to Kiaria's side—"It's bad!" he sobbed into Shiki's very naked chest. "What if we have to amputate!?"—and he took the unconscious Hibana from Shiki as the boy sprinted in the direction of Kiaria. Tora knew Kiaria was found when he heard a very impassioned screech for Shiki to put on some pants, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he set Hibana on the ground and collapsed into a pile of mush himself.
That exercise should not have been as intense as it was, he decided. If they'd worked together and stuck to a plan, there was no way they'd have whole buildings being thrown and blood all over the place. Tora even saw a harpoon somewhere—a harpoon! Who the hell brought a harpoon in here?
He was so tired and exhausted, and damn it, he just really wanted those cake pops now. He'd earned them and then some.
By the time they made it to the observation room, Tora was clinging to Kiaria and sobbing against her as she nursed a bandaged foot. Shiki hadn't had to give her the kiss of life or anything, but he did have to put it back in place before wrapping it tightly with bandages, and that was just as bad as a hospital stay in Tora's book! Shogo and Momoiro were licking their wounds with drained expressions, and Shiki was beaming brightly as he changed into the spare gym uniform Skathi had sent someone to get. The only one actively upset over the whole thing was Hibana, but who cared about her right now? Poor Kiaria was limping!
Skathi glared down at the six students, arms crossed over her chest, and she asked the class, "Who can tell me what went wrong with the blue group's exercise?"
A hand rose—Tetsuya—and Skathi called upon him.
"The heroes' side rushed in without a plan until the last minute," he pointed out. "And when it came to the hostages held underground, Shizu-san risked their safety completely by smashing through the concrete to reach them."
Skathi clicked her fingers, raising one finger when she was done.
"Anyone else?" she asked.
Another hand rose—this time it was Yuzuru's—and she called upon him.
"On the villains' side, there was a clear lack of teamwork," he reported. "Obviously, some villains are bound to clash in terms of goals and egos, but most who have already worked together to gather hostages are in agreement with one another. But one of them still got too greedy, and the other two iced her out."
Skathi clicked her fingers again, raising another finger.
"One more?" she asked.
A third hand rose, this time anxious. Skathi called upon its owner, Miyuki, and Miyuki cleared her throat.
"U—Um… Shouldn't the heroes have prioritised the hostages up in the sky?" she asked. "They're in the most danger of being hurt if Takami-san dropped them, and they'd be more scared than the ones underground with a stable source of air."
Skathi clicked her fingers again, and a third finger was raised.
"These are just three of the errors in your performance," she told them sternly. Tora sniffled and continued to cling to Kiaria. "Not only did two of the villains fail to act like villains in the end, but the one who did commit to it sorely misplaced her priorities in this school's curriculum. Zenshi is a school for working in teams, and the hubris you showed today was the exact kind of hubris that made many teams fall apart and make mistakes in the field."
Hibana mumbled under her breath. Skathi glared at her even more intensely.
"What was that, Kirameki?" she demanded.
"I said," Hibana snapped, glaring at Skathi, "that I got sorted into the villain category, and I was only doing what I was instructed to."
"Who instructed you to try to kill Shuzenji?" Skathi interrogated her. Hibana clicked her tongue and took a step back. "Who told you to draw so much blood today? Who told you to crush your classmates under heavy weights? Who told you to make actual weapons to attack them with?"
"I was doing what a villain would do," Hibana grumbled.
"No, you were doing what you wanted to do," Skathi said, and her voice was rising. "If you think your behaviour today is what counts as 1-A material, you need to take a moment to reevaluate your goals as a Pro Hero and who exactly you're helping with this kind of attitude. Or Takami's comment about being 1-C material might come true."
Ouch… Even Tora felt that one. Hibana gritted her teeth together, seething as she clearly wanted to say something back to Skathi, but Skathi took one step forward—one long stride with her obscenely long legs—and she towered over Hibana like an actual monster. Tora couldn't see Skathi's face through the shadow she cast over Hibana, but he did see recognition flicker in Hibana's eyes.
She'd met her match.
Hibana looked away from Skathi with a grimace, lowering her head with a quiet, "Understood."
Skathi stepped away from Hibana and let out a low sigh, and Tora stared at the fine cold mist that was expelled from her mouth. Seriously? Skathi was that close to a Quirk beatdown? Or was that just a thing that happened when she got intense?
Skathi waved a hand, and the group all rejoined the class with a mixed bag of reactions. Naturally, Shiki was still the only one beaming like he'd won the lottery.
The other groups weren't too eager to take their turns next.
Skathi pinched at her brows and cleared her throat, and with a decisive tone, she informed the class, "Green group is next. Same lineup as before—X's are villains, O's are heroes. Your field will be the industrial area, and your hostages are on the office floor of the main factory."
And so six more students began to sweat bullets, anxiety setting in over what aspects Skathi could pick apart the most.