Oops, lost track of the days. Anyway, next Runner Ups update! Group two's turn!

XII.

Battle Tendency

Arc Theme: Again - Yui

Sheesh, with a headmistress like this, the class had their work cut out for them.

Aoi looked down at her lot with a frown, the LED lights on her helmet reflecting her expression with a cutesy frown, and she stared at the X on top of the yellow paint covering her lot. Those with colour designations had already gravitated towards each other, though they weren't separated by X and O just yet. It was a little weird, how heavy the first match of the class had gone. No one had expected Hibana to go nuclear just to get Shiki out of the picture, and despite being told over and over by Shiki that this kind of thing was normal, it didn't quite click in everyone's minds just how far his healing and nigh-immortality could go until it was put to the test with a lethal jenga game. She had to agree with some of Skathi's remarks, but when all was said and done, wasn't there more praise to be warranted for the villains' side?

Even if Kiaria and Tora had abandoned Hibana, villains did that to each other all the time. And when they put their heads together, they actually refined Hibana's plan. If Hibana had stopped and listened to the critiques, or agreed to not emphasise her own role so much, they could've passed with flying colours.

She supposed, despite it being a villain team win, the hero team had more work cut out for them. Shiki got points for saving a villain's life and taking note of Kiaria not reporting the other two's escape, and Shogo got praise for his keen observation of the floor's hollowness where Tora had hidden. The praise fell flat when the goal wasn't to apprehend villains, but to save hostages in a way that minimised harm to them. Ironically, the villains were the ones treating the hostages with the most care in that scenario.

But now it was time for the next group, and the setting was due to change to the factory in the industrial area. The pipes and oversized trucks littering the area made it look every bit like a functioning factory block, complete with warehouses and production lines paused. A thin layer of smog covered the area, though not enough to make it unbreathable and hard to see through. Aoi fancied it a bit similar to how the city would look to someone out in the countryside, with slightly less clean and crisp air to breathe each day.

When Skathi had announced the green group was up next, Aoi had let out a sigh of relief. But when she saw that Tetsuya was in this group, she started to wonder if this would end much better than the last lot.

The heroes' side was pretty decently built. Yuzuru looked rather smart in his costume, with a long red dress-shirt that was lightly padded with armour, and over the top of it was a white hooded jacket that flared out just above his knees,with black lining and golden chains adorning it while its shoulders were obviously padded. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and the middle buttons of his jacket were undone—revealing a black tie to match with his red dress-shirt. He had thin, fingerless black gloves on his hands and black trousers, which were accompanied by knee-high black boots that had a decent heel to them alongside the silver buckles decorating them. Aoi had seen him walking around a bit, and she'd noticed the sectioning on his boots' soles that suggested wheels might pop out, though she wasn't entirely sure if that was the function in mind. Around his waist, Yuzuru had a small metal compartment that had a red cross on it, indicating they were medical supplies, and atop his head sat a hat very similar to their math teacher's—a Mad Hatter hat, complete with the slip of paper the classic Mad Hatter had tucked around the ribbon on the hat, and it rested a little off-centre on Yuzuru's head.

Miyuki was a rather interesting choice, given her cat aesthetic and the like. Hers was a one-piece bodysuit that was primarily dark grey in colour, and a patch of white fur was in the middle of her chest area, mimicking a cat's. The grey was dotted with black spots and half-spots, similar to her tail and ears, and they started from the wrists and ankles and began to fade the further they moved up her limbs. She had thick black boots that stopped just a little above her knees, and on her arms she wore a pair of black elbow-length gloves that appeared to have padding inside the palms and along the fingers, reminding Aoi of a cat's little toe beans. Atop her head was what Aoi could describe as a biker helmet, and it was the same colour and design as Miyuki's costume overall, with tinted glass making up the visor and a set of cat-like ears protruding from the top of the helmet—likely where her actual cat ears would be. The only un-cat-like thing on her was the black utility belt around her waist, which hung low around her hips.

The final member of the heroes' team, who Aoi was very excited and worried about watching go through the exercise, was her very own mom! Tetsuya's costume was primarily a navy blue form-fitting jumpsuit with a high neck and black zipper that went all the way down to his midsection. He wore a black buckled belt with pouches attached to it on either side, and he wore dark violet gloves that reached his mid-forearm in length. Alongside the gloves were black elbow braces covered in metallic plates. On his feet, he wore a pair of black boots with iron soles, and the boots were connected to a pair of black knee pads that, like the elbow pads, were also covered in metallic plates. It was a very simple but functional costume, and Aoi could feel it in her steel bones that he'd incorporated metal into every aspect of his costume save for the jumpsuit itself, though knowing Tetsuya, he probably requested metallic threading be included in his application. He was so extra like that, she thought with a smirk.

Compared to the mismatched trio on the heroes' side, who all seemed rather awkward together despite Yuzuru already being more familiar with Miyuki and Miyuki doing her best to talk to both Tetsuya and Yuzuru about what they should do in the factory setting, the villains' side actually seemed a bit more excited to work together.

First up was Emiko, and her costume evoked dragon imagery that matched the scaling on her skin and tail. Her costume was a navy blue leotard that Aoi had overheard Emiko explain to Ryuichi was made from a heat-resistant leather, to endure her fire-breathing aspect of her Quirk, and it was made to look like a scaly dragon hide with small green, red, and blue metal scales covering Emiko's back and shoulders. She also wore a pair of large metal gauntlets that covered her forearms and fists, but left her fingers and claws exposed for maximum slashing action. Very smart and practical, Aoi thought with approval. She didn't wear any shoes, which was a normal thing for Emiko at this point thanks to how sharp her foot claws were and how easily shreddable modern shoes tended to be, and overall Emiko looked rather confident in herself.

Next to her was Yoyo, who had the highest energy of the three. She wore a high-collared, long-sleeved celeste blue leotard that was outlined with white and gold, and the first thing Aoi noticed about it was that there was a large, long opening along the middle of the leotard that exposed the star on Yoyo's chest and sternum, and even went so far as to expose the middle of her stomach and belly button, ending at her navel in a point. She wore a short satin bomber jacket that was black with yellow highlights over the top, with its drawstring tied into a bow that rested over her leotard, and she wore knee-high socks that had celeste blue stripes at the top of them. She wore simple white and blue Converse sneakers on her feet. The entire ensemble was topped off with a large visor on Yoyo's face that was golden in colour, and it took on the shape of a five-pointed star—obviously with two points at the bottom, and three pointing up top.

And finally, the most wholesome of them all, in Aoi's opinion, there was cute little Hanabi. Hanabi's costume was azure, consisting of a skin-tight bodysuit with gold star and sparkle patterns decorating her lower torso, and she had a purple V-shaped marking with a white outline across her chest and upper back. She had draped over her back and left arm a dark blue cape with a gold outline, and it reached her knees in length. It was decorated with pink and purple patterns on both sides, evoking dream-like imagery, and her hands were decorated with gauntlets of a similar colour scheme: Purple gauntlets with pink wrist guards. Around her waist was a utility belt that looked to have bomb-shaped containers decorating it, and Aoi could see something light pink and sparkly swirling around in them. Hanabi wore a pair of purple knee-length boots with white markings on them, and a black strap was around her left thigh with a matching satchel that seemed to hold a flask for Hanabi. Probably the cutest aspect of her costume was the facepaint she wore—two purple stars were painted on her cheeks, making her look positively adorable, and on the top of her head she wore an azure helmet with an open back and tinted visor that hung over her eyes.

Well and truly, this villain team looked to get along more than the last one had. Aoi wondered if the same could be said about the heroes' team…

The villain team entered first, energetic and giggling to themselves as they discussed their plans, and she waved down Tetsuya as he and his team stretched and limbered up for when they were allowed to enter the field. He looked at her, expression deadpan as ever, and Aoi held up her hands in a heart shape and let her helmet display the words, "Go Team Mom!"

In her heart of hearts, she knew Team Cutie Patootie was winning this match.

She saw his scowl from where she was standing, and despite how disgruntled he looked, she could see in his eyes that her support meant something to him. He was alway so touchy like that, never being honest with how he felt and always putting on a front. The group moved out when Skathi gave them the order, and he seemed to relax a little more as he asked Yuzuru and Miyuki what their Quirks could do in a hostage situation.

The screen above the class flickered to show Team Cutie Patootie on the move, and Emiko was giving the dummies a cautious tug to test their weight. She hummed to herself as Hanabi and Yoyo hovered behind her, curious about her verdict, and the mic was able to pick up Emiko's decisive statement of, "They weigh about the same as a real person."

Hanabi faltered and shrank in on herself. "Oh no… I'm not going to be much help on the physical front, in that case," she whimpered.

Yoyo hummed, looking to be in deep thought, and asked Emiko, "How many could you carry around?"

Emiko laughed nervously. "I don't doubt I could hold them all while standing still," she explained, "but running around with them? I'd probably drop a few. Would we lose points if we're the ones handling them improperly?"

"No way!" Yoyo struck a pose, a sinister smile on her face. "We're the villains! Villains always do mean things to their hostages! Look!"

And then she wound up and kicked one of the puppets. It let out a solid thunk that even the microphones in the exam site picked up. Yoyo dropped down to the ground with a howl, clutching her foot soon as she did so.

She didn't stay like that for long, though. She unfurled herself, beaming brightly, and chirped, "Just kidding! But don't kick it yourself, Hana-chan, it's got solid wood inside!"

Aoi (and a couple of others near her, who seemed to have the same reaction as she did) let out a low whistle. The girl had made a show of acting like she was in pain by stubbing her toe on the puppet, only to reveal it was a joke and then warn Hanabi away from doing it. Aoi glanced down at her lot, at the X on it, and she knew her mask was reflecting her contemplative expression with its own cutesy version.

She was gonna try kicking one of the puppets when it was her turn. She wanted to test how solidly built they were, if Yoyo was warning someone away from it after laughing off her own kick.

"Maybe we should figure out what to do with them, if we can't move them?" Hanabi suggested. She raised her hand as though volunteering herself, smiling with a bit of hope. "I have some uses for my Quirk that might knock them out if they get too close. I didn't see anyone but Nekota-san wearing anything to cover their face. If they breathe in my Quirk, they'll hallucinate and eventually fall asleep."

Oh, that was her Quirk? How neat! And it sounded similar to their homeroom teacher's Quirk. From what Aoi had heard, Mononoke's Quirk presented as black smoke he could emit from his mouth and pores that caused people to pass out. Maybe Skathi would have some notes for application with Hanabi's use of it at the end of the exercise.

"What if we breathe it in too?" Emiko asked, worried.

Yoyo raised a hand, high and straight in the air as she grinned even more. "Yoyo's got it covered!" she announced. Her other hand reached into the four-pointed star on her chest, and she pulled out a single gas mask from within. Hanabi and Emiko stared at her in astonishment. Even Aoi was stunned. Did she just have one of those lying around? "I'm strapped like a seatbelt! What else do we need? Do we need knives? Rope? I have six hundred feet of rope in there! What about a wrecking ball? Chomp Chomp is primed and ready! What about water? I got a hundred and twenty gall—"

"The masks are a good start!" Hanabi cut her off, trying very hard to not freak out like everyone else in the observation room over the sheer amount of stuff in Yoyo's deep space. "I'm immune to my Dream Mist, so I won't need one, but if you have two masks for each of you, it'll help a lot with friendly fire."

"Hey, is your mist flammable?" Emiko asked. Hanabi faltered at that.

"I—" she started, only to pause and think on it even more. "I don't know…"

"I have gasoline," Yoyo chimed in.

Emiko snorted a laugh and looked to Yoyo, amused by her interjection. She was almost playful as she said, "What can't you fit in there?"

Yoyo didn't seem to understand that it was a rhetorical question. She just shrugged, beaming, and chirped, "People can't survive the trip into my hammer space. So anything alive can't go in there."

Emiko and Hanabi stared at her. Almost as though realising something that had eluded her for decades, Hanabi's gaze drifted to the puppets.

Quietly, Hanabi told the girls, "We are the villains in this exercise."

"And villains don't care about hostage wellbeing," Emiko added, quickly catching on to her drift.

Aoi was absolutely stunned, and so were some of her other classmates, as Skathi quickly flicked the view to another camera just in time to hide Yoyo's bare chest from them all as she pulled her leotard back and chanted, "Chug! Chug! Chug!" to Hanabi and Emiko, who'd immediately grabbed for some puppets and moved towards Yoyo.

By the end of it all, when Yoyo was decent again, all ten of the puppets had been shoved into the star on her chest and securely hidden away from the heroes' team. They all looked rather proud of themselves for thinking up this plan, and Emiko nodded in pride as she threw compliments to Yoyo and Hanabi—Yoyo for being a godsend in this exercise for their team, and Hanabi for being such a quick thinker to come up with the idea in the first place. They were left with figuring out how to stall the hero team now that their hostages were untouchable, and Aoi glanced over at Skathi to gauge her reaction.

The disappointed look on Skathi's face proved that the hero team wasn't winning. Skathi instead turned away from the screen as Yoyo pulled out another gas mask to pass to Emiko, slipping on her own, and she stared at the class with a hardened expression.

"Who can tell me exactly why the hero team is going to lose this match?" she asked the class.

A couple of people seemed uncertain, looking at each other, and Aoi briefly recalled the remark Yoyo had made about living things entering her Quirk.

About five hands rose at the same time. Skathi, bemused, pointed to Hibana and asked, "Yes, Kirameki?"

"Yoyo-san has just stated that living things can't enter her Quirk," Hibana reported, confident and clear. "Since we're treating the hostages as living people for this exercise, Yoyo-san has preemptively killed all ten hostages before the heroes could even scout the area to rescue them."

"Correct." Skathi folded her hands behind her back, glaring at the rest of the class. "Though it may have slipped their minds to remember this, you are to act as though each hostage is a living, breathing person. The only thing preventing the villain team from failing this exercise is the fact that they are villains in this scenario. And unfortunately, some villains simply are that inconsiderate—or in this case, stupid—when human lives are at stake. What remains to be seen is how quickly the hero team will realise all of their hostages are dead, and how much time they waste looking for them instead of apprehending the villains."

The girls on screen appeared to be getting their planning sorted and finished up, and Skathi turned around just in time for the hero side to enter the factory area. They walked past the warehouses that lined the path to the main factory, and Aoi's heart went out to the trio. They were boned, and they didn't even know it.

"Mom's gonna hate this," she announced.

"Oh yeah," Lyoko agreed, deadpanning.

"At least it's mostly his team covered in metal," Teru, one of the others who'd drawn a yellow lot, chimed in. "I don't know how safe Mori-san is, but she seems tough enough to withstand a tantrum."

Aoi barked a laugh. Her helmet, beyond a shadow of a doubt, displayed a bold XD on its surface. "Mom sure has a temper, huh?" she mused.

"I guess he had plenty of practice throwing you around, right, Suzuki-san?" Lyoko joked.

Aoi punched his arm, scoffing. "Aoi!" she corrected him. "How many times I gotta say it? You're part of the gang, so it's Aoi."

"My question, Aoi-san," Lyoko whimpered.

Ugh, fine. She was gonna get him to drop the honorifics one of these days, though. She wasn't going through the whole school year being known as Miss Aoi, like some sort of employer entering the office each morning.

"He's definitely had the practice," she agreed. Thinking about the times she'd train with him brought a smirk to her face. "Actually, I've got myself a good deal of resistance to his Quirk after all the times I made him throw me around. When we were kids and our Quirks first came in, our version of training was me charging at him to tackle him and him trying to keep me away for as long as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some pipes getting thrown around, actually."

Lyoko stared at her in horror. "Don't you weigh somewhere around four hundred pounds?"

"I do now. It was closer to three hundred when I was a kid, though. My weight has nothing to do with wanting to tackle someone."

"It should have everything to do with it," Teru muttered.

"My skeleton is chonky and my ass is fat," Aoi bragged. "You wish you were me."

"I cannot stress enough that I do not."

She shoved a hand in his face, and she halted the conversation with a loud, "Shush! Mom's entering stage right!"

On cue, the screens separate from the villain hideout lit up and displayed the various locations around the area. In one such area, Tetsuya and Yuzuru were having an animated discussion about what to do while Miyuki nodded along, trying to look like she was contributing by agreeing with them every so often.

The microphones were able to pick up their chatter, but didn't kick in until just after Yuzuru ran over to a pile of pipes and held up a couple for Tetsuya to inspect.

"Do you think these would be strong enough?" he asked Tetsuya. Tetsuya hurried over, appraising the pipes as he took one from Yuzuru.

"It'll be crude, but I can make some strips out of them," he informed Yuzuru.

"Then we have some capture tools in place for Hagane-san," Yuzuru surmised. He looked to Miyuki, who stood at attention when it was her turn to be addressed. "You'd probably have better luck at being stealthy compared to us, Nekota-san, and even if you stay in your partial shift, your limbs are already a great deal more flexible than ours. If you can find a vantage point and report to Hagane-san about what the villains are doing, we can plan a sneak attack to restrain them."

Miyuki seemed to like the idea, but shifted on her feet a little anxiously.

"I can do that, but…" She pointed uncertainly to Tetsuya. It was hard to see her expressions under the helmet she wore, Aoi thought with dismay. She was probably making a super cute, frustrated expression about having to ask the guy who bared his ass to the class not even three days ago about the useless ones leaving ahead of time for help. "Unless I'm in my full shift, I can't climb flat surfaced buildings quite as good. I'm better than most, obviously, and I can make it up if there's a structure I can use as a crutch, but I didn't see anything like crates or a vehicle we could move."

Tetsuya looked nonplussed as he tapped the pipe against his shoulder. "Vehicles?" he asked. "I saw a boom lift behind the building. What if I move it really gently towards the building? Or manipulate the arm to extend to the roof?"

"That would work!" Miyuki chirped. Yuzuru picked up a few more pipes, handing a couple to Tetsuya, and he got to work tearing apart the pipes and flattening them like sheets of metal to tuck into his belt. Tetsuya was methodical and careful, measuring each strip of metal properly against each other, and then he looked to Yuzuru with a serious expression.

"Hold your wrists out. I wanna test something."

Yuzuru did as he said. In an instant, two of the strips of metal wrapped around each wrist and clamped them together, the metal fusing together as Yuzuru tried to pry them apart. When it was clear he couldn't—not for lack of trying, of course—Tetsuya unfused the strips and brought them back to his side.

"I can use these ones to restrain Yoyo-san and Yumeya-san," he explained. "But I'll have you scatter some pipes around for me to wrap around Mori-san, though. It's been pretty obvious in classes that she's above average in terms of strength, so she might break free of a thin metal strip. But if we assume she can't breathe fire like a dragon and is just super strong, pipes should do the trick."

"Maybe we should approach this with the belief that she can breathe fire," Yuzuru reasoned. Tetsuya furrowed his brows and crossed his arms over his chest.

"And what do we have to combat fire, exactly?"

"Well, if breathing fire can affect her body heat, maybe we can make her breathe more of it," Yuzuru suggested. Miyuki let out a small gasp.

"I did notice she bundles up a bit more than everyone else in class," she noted. Tetsuya still frowned, but nodded once and looked around at the pipes above them. Big pipelines were connecting the buildings together, and wide, unused pipes were stacked against one warehouse in particular. "Maybe we could make a cage for her?"

"Already on it," Tetsuya said. He ran over to the larger pipes, lifting one to gauge its weight, and Aoi could see him trying to figure out how to reshape it into a cage that could hold Emiko.

It was a smart play, but they were doomed to fail regardless of this plan. At this point it was just brownie points.

Miyuki's head snapped towards the factory. Yuzuru rubbed his wrists, still flexing his hands from the restraints earlier, and sidled up beside her.

"What's wrong, Nekota-san?" he asked.

"I can smell gasoline," she muttered. "A lot of it."

Everyone's gazes moved to the other screen, and half of them let out surprised shouts as they saw Emiko, Yoyo and Hanabi generously emptying containers of gasoline all over the inside of the warehouse. Were they actually going to burn it down? Aoi was staring in absolute awe of the steel balls on each of the girls. Despite looking absolutely scared out of her wits, Hanabi was definitely putting her all into emptying out the gasoline in her hands.

They all met up in the middle, and Emiko held on to both Hanabi and Yoyo as Yoyo aimed her chest up at the ceiling of the factory. With a big smirk, Yoyo chirped, "Here comes Mr. Bojangles!"

And then a hook burst from her chest, connected to a long chain, and it broke through the ceiling of the factory thanks to the high velocity Yoyo had launched it. There was still a ton of chain coming out of her chest, and on the other screen, everyone could see the hook crashing out of the roof of the factory and flopping onto the side of it, snagging on a sturdy set of pipes before going taut. On the villains' screen, the trio was launched into the air by the pull of Yoyo's Quirk attempt to retract the hook, and Emiko helped Hanabi through the hole in the ceiling before joining her on the roof. They both pulled Yoyo up, and Yoyo worked to unsnag the hook before recalling it into her chest.

Just in time for the hero team to reconvene and witness Emiko breathe a fireball directly into the hole of the factory.

As the building erupted into flames, the hero trio all let out alarmed screams as they scrambled for what to do next. Tetsuya launched sheets of metal at the group, aiming to restrain them, but Yoyo bounced back and pulled a giant hammer from her chest. "Mally-chan", she called it, and she hit the sheets Tetsuya threw their way with a perfect baseball form.

"What will you do now, heroes?" Yoyo bellowed from the top of the burning building. Hanabi was clinging to Emiko with her eyes squeezed shut, holding one of the little balls filled with Dream Mist, and Emiko was fastening a gas mask to her face as she held Hanabi with one hand. "How will you save your precious fans from the wrath of the Pillar Women?"

"Oh my God," Kaiten whispered. "She's not."

Yoyo struck a pose as Emiko passed her a mask, and she snapped it onto her face gleefully.

"Face the wrath of Wamuuko!" She gestured to Emiko, who was apparently now Wamuuko. "Fear the might of Hanadisi!" She gestured to Hanabi, who was now apparently Hanadisi. "Tremble before Karyoyo!"

"She is," Kaiten said, this time in horror. "Oh my God, she is."

Aoi couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, and so did a few others after they heard her break the tension. This was too rich. Yoyo was making them work for their failure, and Tetsuya was going to have an even bigger tantrum than before. Aoi shouldn't find this funny, but it was so fucking hilarious!

Yuzuru grabbed Tetsuya's arm and signalled Miyuki. "Don't panic!" he told them. "They wouldn't burn the building with the hostages inside! They've hidden them somewhere! Scatter!"

Miyuki wasted no time darting away, heading for the nearest warehouse to begin her search. Tetsuya gritted his teeth, scowling as he ripped his arm out of Yuzuru's grip, and Yuzuru glared at him. The fire raged on as Hanabi whimpered in Emiko's grip, shaking like a leaf. Yoyo signalled for them to prepare a jump, and Emiko picked her up in her other arm as the fire raged on.

"Hagane-san, please," Yuzuru pleaded, glancing over at Miyuki as the girl pushed open the door to the first warehouse and stumbled inside. "We need to—"

"Help Nekota-san find the hostages," Tetsuya ordered Yuzuru. Yuzuru looked at him with a puzzled expression. "I'm the only one who can manipulate the metal to restrain them, and you can't make more than one contract at a time. Save it for the right moment—I can probably take one of them and force the others to make a deal with you."

Yuzuru glanced up at the roof of the factory, just in time to see Emiko leap from the highest point with Hanabi and Yoyo in each arm. Hanabi was rearing back one arm, trying to aim her bomb for Tetsuya and Yuzuru, and Yuzuru grabbed the back of Tetsuya's costume as he began to run with him in the opposite direction. The bomb of Dream Mist crashed to the ground long before the trio did, the mist exploding out around Tetsuya and Yuzuru in a large, uncontrollable mass, and the boys stumbled out of the pink and glittery gold smog while coughing and gasping for air.

Not even a second after they broke free of the smog, already stumbling from its effects, gallons of water exploded from Yoyo's chest like a hydro jet and softened the girls' descent into a mere tumble to the ground rather than an outright drop. The water crashed into Yuzuru and Tetsuya in waves, sending them floating down the area along with the sea water, and Yuzuru cried out for Tetsuya in a panic. The gold chains on his costume seemed to be yanked in one direction, and Yuzuru was pulled through the rapids towards Tetsuya's outstretched hand.

When they finally drifted to a stop, flat on their stomachs on the ground and coughing up sea water, Yoyo was back on her feet and striking a pose worthy of a battle shounen manga.

"Tick tock, heroes!" she announced gleefully. "Where are your hostages?"

Somehow Aoi was disappointed she wasn't in the same group as Yoyo. It could've been great. Imagine facing off against someone so extra. Aoi could've met her dramatic match.

One day, she told herself. One day she'll get put in a group exercise with Yoyo. And she'd have all the fun Tetsuya was having right now.

Aoi probably thought he was having fun right now. This kind of thing was right up her alley. She was probably jealous.

Tetsuya felt like a drowned rat, and he was most decidedly not having fun.

Actually, after the back to back bomb and waterboard combo, Tetsuya wasn't feeling too hot. Dragging himself to his feet felt like a slog, and he was stumbling as he helped Yuzuru to his feet as well. He hadn't looked into Hanabi's Quirk all that much since they'd started classes—no chance to, honestly, and this exercise was the first he was hearing of his own teammates' Quirks as well. So whatever had been in that bomb she'd thrown, it had to have been part of her Quirk. He'd never seen a support item that could have this kind of staggering effect while being all cutesy and pink and glittery.

But then again, that torrent of water had hit him rather hard while he was running. Perhaps Tetsuya hit his head somewhere and didn't clock it.

What he did know was that Yoyo was starting to get on his nerves, and Emiko was gearing up to charge them as Yoyo pulled the giant mallet from her chest a second time. Tetsuya heaved a sigh, trying to get himself back into the action, and he tried to reach out with his Quirk to drag the hammer from Yoyo's hands and take Emiko down with it. If a swing from that thing could deflect sheets of metal at a high speed, then it could take down a strong classmate who could leap from buildings without breaking a sweat.

But he couldn't get a feel for it. Tetsuya gritted his teeth, glaring at Yoyo, and Yoyo struck another pose as Emiko continued to bound towards them.

"Your puny metal Quirk won't work on Mally-chan!" Yoyo boasted. Hanabi threw a glass ball towards her, and Yoyo smashed it with the hammer to give Emiko some cover. "Mally-chan isn't made from metal, after all!"

Son of a—

As soon as Emiko emerged from the pink smoke cover, Tetsuya raised his arms defensively and focused on her gauntlets. If he couldn't knock her out with the mallet, he had to work with what he had. One fist was aimed for his face, clenched tightly and perfectly for a solid strike, and Tetsuya dodged out of the way with Yuzuru's help just as he pulled the metal of the gauntlet over her closed fist and sealed it shut. Emiko's fist hit the ground with a metallic twang, and when she pulled it back from the cracked ground beneath her, she was surprised to find her gauntlet misshapen and sealed closed around her fist to prevent her from using her hand.

Her tail flicked back and forth, and she looked at Tetsuya with a playful glare. It was the kind of look he used to see Aoi give him before she'd spontaneously roughhouse with him and call it "training".

Before she could wind up for another punch, he did the same to her other gauntlet—though her claws were sticking out of this one, and Emiko hissed from the pain of her claws being put under the pressure and threat of being torn out from the gauntlets binding her fingers to the tips. Tetsuya did the best thing he could think of in this situation as he saw Hanabi create something from her mist—something vaguely dragon-shaped—and he launched Emiko up into the air using the gauntlets as a medium.

Emiko crashed into one of the pipes connecting the buildings together. The metal on her hands was fused to the metal of the pipes, and she dangled from the height with a surprised shout to her team.

He felt Yuzuru grab his arm again. Tetsuya snatched it away, and he was starting to get annoyed with how often this guy got handy with him today. He didn't need to be led around like a child, damn it—he needed some space to do his thing!

But Yuzuru grabbed him again, firmer, and he demanded of Tetsuya, "Do you consent to sharing your Quirk with me in order to capture these two?"

He was going to use his contract for capturing them? That was so stupid—he should be saving it for the hostages.

"Just go help Nekota-san—" he tried to order him, but Yuzuru was firm.

"Do you consent to sharing your Quirk with me in order to capture these two?" he repeated, firmer.

"I consent!" Tetsuya blurted out, though it was more just to get the guy to let go of him. He felt a shift then, like a piece of him had been layered over the top of Yuzuru that shared his Quirk to the degree that Tetsuya was currently capable of, and he felt something brand itself onto his wrist as Yuzuru quickly flung a flurry of pipes towards Hanabi.

Yoyo swatted away a few with her mallet, and Hanabi ducked to the ground with a scream to avoid the other pipes that got past. The little dragon-like creature she'd made from the smoke she emitted was struck by one of the pipes, and it dissipated before it could even begin to move. But it did begin to reform itself as Hanabi concentrated on it, and when another pipe hit it, it was met with some resistance before going right through.

So she could control how thick the smoke was, Tetsuya thought. If forcing it to dissipate was off the table through force, then he had to get creative.

Tetsuya dragged a larger pipe towards them and unrolled it, a large flat sheet sitting between Yuzuru and Tetsuya as Yuzuru poured his focus into helping unfurl the sheet. Yoyo began to charge forward, the star on her chest clearly about to fire something from it to stop them, and Tetsuya called out to Yuzuru, "Ten rounds!"

In synchronised fashion, Yuzuru and Tetsuya managed to flick the sheet back and forth, like a paper fan kicking up air into a person's face, and the strong gusts of wind they generated as they pushed it back and forth, back and forth, were enough to blow away the smoke Hanabi was controlling and give Yoyo pause as she fought to keep her balance on her feet.

Miyuki burst out of the first warehouse, sprinting to the next one, and her appearance was just enough to distract the duo as Hanabi looked to her in fright. Tetsuya could tell Yuzuru was thinking the same as him—to fling the sheet at Hanabi and wrap her up in it—and he gave full control to the sheet as it went flying towards Hanabi.

The metal crashed into her, engulfing her whole body and leaving her head exposed, and the metal wrapped around her so quickly that it knocked her off of her feet and sent her into a roll along the ground. Hanabi cried out, startled, and Tetsuya felt the burden of the deal he'd made with Yuzuru ease up. Yuzuru let out a breath too, turning to Yoyo, and he swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Once we capture Yoyo-san, the deal will be done," he informed Tetsuya quietly. "If Mori-san gets free in that time, you're on your own."

Fine by him. Tetsuya nodded once, and they both glanced up at Emiko just in case.

She was breathing fire on her own hands, trying to melt the gauntlets and drop back down to the ground.

Something snared Yuzuru's leg, and Yuzuru let out a surprised cry as he was suddenly yanked by the leg towards Yoyo. The same grappling hook she'd used to pull herself and her teammates from the factory was now wrapped around Yuzuru's leg, and at the speed it was being pulled back to Yoyo, Tetsuya almost thought that he might get sucked into the star on her chest.

Yoyo pulled her hammer back behind her just in time for Emiko to finally melt through her gauntlets, dropping in on the scene to stop Tetsuya from pulling Yuzuru back to him. She opened her mouth wide, the glow in the back of her throat enough warning for Tetsuya to find a shield, and he flung as many pipes between himself and Emiko just as an arc of fire was aimed towards him. It was hot and burned his eyes, forcing Tetsuya to blink tears away, and when Emiko stopped to take a breath, almost all of the pipes had been melted into goop. Tetsuya gritted his teeth and decided to make the most of it.

He flicked his wrist as though using a whip, and a significant amount of the melted metal flicked past Emiko and snagged Yoyo's mallet by the handle. He gave it a harsh tug back just as Yoyo was about to throw it down at Yuzuru, and the mallet landed flat-side first against the back of Emiko's head.

Emiko staggered as Tetsuya threw the mallet aside and prepared to make use of more of the melted metal, and she looked cross-eyed as she tried to steady herself on her feet. But she seemed to correct herself, finding the will to focus, and she raised her fists in preparation for Tetsuya's next strike.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Despite being restrained and a short distance away from them, Hanabi still had enough energy to let loose a thick smog of pink, glittery smoke from her mouth and envelop the group entirely with it.

Tetsuya coughed and gagged, trying to wave the smoke out of his face, and he felt something tackle him in his midsection and drag him away using the metal in his costume. It had to have been Yuzuru, he thought, because nothing else should've been able to move him in a full-bodied way unless it was his Quirk.

Yuzuru emerged from the smog with Tetsuya, and he'd clearly been holding his breath even after they were out of the smog and in the clear air. Tetsuya was dazed, a thin haze clouding his sight, and he could barely make out Yuzuru's features before they began to distort and warp.

"Her range is five metres," Yuzuru gasped as he finally took in a breath. "Nekota-san won't be affected. What about you?"

Tetsuya was surprisingly slurring his words as he replied, "Looks funny…"

"I think it might be a hallucinogen," Yuzuru guessed. "It came out of her mouth all at once. I sensed a bit of metal in the gas masks—if I can remove them by force, I can knock out Mori-san and handle Yoyo-san afterwards."

He could sense the metal? Even Tetsuya had trouble with that. How did this guy, who'd only been using Tetsuya's Quirk for five minutes, figure out how to sense metal?

Yuzuru's face morphed into something more cartoonish, his expressions exaggerated, and when Tetsuya looked down at the ground, he could see flowers sprouting from the cement and moving in a synchronised dance. Oh yeah, he thought. Definitely a hallucinogen. But to his surprise, instead of being alarmed about a potential trip, Tetsuya was oddly calm.

Did it really matter if they lost this match? Everyone hardly knew anything about each other, so of course they weren't able to properly prepare. Was it going to be the end of their hero careers if they failed their first ever exercise? Probably not. Skathi would help them learn from this match.

Tetsuya let out a pleased hum as the flowers began to jingle like soft bells, and the calmness in his chest only grew.

"Hagane-san?" Yuzuru asked, his voice distant.

"So comfy…" Tetsuya slurred. He tried to move, but his legs gave out and Yuzuru barely caught him in time as he dropped to the ground. Ah, Yuzuru's costume was so soft… He could go to sleep right here. Tetsuya let out a yawn, eyes drooping and vision blurring, and Yuzuru gave him a harsh shake to try keep him awake.

"Hagane-san, try to fight it!" he yelled.

"It'll be fine…" Tetsuya yawned. "It'll be…"

He was out like a light before he knew it, dreaming about a pleasant meadow with the softest, warmest grass he'd ever laid on in his life.

When the smoke from Hanabi's Quirk finally started to clear, Yoyo was stunned to see Emiko's mask get yanked off of her face and smog kicked up in its place from the blowback. Emiko coughed and let out a panicked, "Oh no!" as she choked on the smoke, and before Yoyo even thought about it, the sight of fire being coughed up by Emiko was enough to have Yoyo jumping back in alarm.

They were right to worry about whether or not Hanabi's smoke was flammable. Almost as soon as the flames in Emiko's throat escaped her mouth, the whole smokescreen lit up almost as bright as the factory burning away behind them. The explosion was big and bright, fire tinted pink as Yoyo hurriedly rolled Hanabi out of the range and thought about what to do next. She wasn't the brains of the group here! Hanabi was! And Hanabi was all wrapped up!

"Y—Yoyo-san…" Hanabi whimpered. "D—Do you have anything that can cut through this? My arms are cramping…"

Yoyo mentally ticked off each item in her deep space. Scissors wouldn't work, since this wasn't rope. A knife? No, no, she'd cut poor Hanabi! Maybe…

Yoyo removed a pair of tin snips from her deep space, and Hanabi paled at the sight of it.

"W—What'd you put that in there for?" she asked.

"Just in case!" Yoyo chirped. "Better to have it and not need it, right? Hold still!"

The sounds of life from within the explosion of pink and glitter were very non-existent now, and Yoyo tried not to think too much about how quiet it was. Emiko was a strong girl—she carried both Yoyo and Hanabi around, and she knew she wasn't the lightest person in the world, if Kiaria had struggled to carry her in the entrance exam! Plus, wasn't she generally immune to most fire? She was a dragon! A dragon! Fire can't kill a dragon!

She was halfway through snipping Hanabi free of the sheet metal when Miyuki burst out of the second warehouse and took stock of the situation. The smoke had cleared by then, Emiko passed out on the ground and snoring soundly, just like Tetsuya was, and Yuzuru was desperately gathering as many pipes as possible to defend himself with. He still was able to use Tetsuya's Quirk, which was super unfair if you asked Yoyo. Miyuki looked from Yuzuru to the duo on the other side of the pink explosion, and she called out to him in confusion.

"Keep looking!" Yuzuru called back. "I'll keep them busy!"

Busy, her left foot. Yoyo was snipping Hanabi free and taking the win in this exercise!

She finally finished cutting Hanabi free, and Hanabi pulled the water from her thigh to take a chug of it. As soon as she was done, she tried to summon another one of those little creatures she'd tried to make earlier. A little unicorn with wings—weren't they called alicorns?—and a tiny dragon hovered beside her, and Hanabi clutched her flash tightly in her hands.

"How much longer?" she whined.

"Chin up, Hana-chan!" Yoyo chirped. "We got this in the bag! We just have to outlast them, right?"

Hanabi sat up and took another swig of her flask. She looked past Yoyo, and then her eyes went wide as the little creatures made of her Dream Mist darted towards Yuzuru. Yoyo looked over just in time to see one of the creatures, the alicorn, crashing into Yuzuru and bursting into a pink and glittery mist around his face. Yuzuru faltered, stumbling, but he kept moving. The dragon flew at him next, and it also collided with his face and burst into a puff of pink.

He forced himself through the thick cloud of Dream Mist. Yoyo didn't miss the gas mask around his mouth and nose. He'd stolen Emiko's to use for himself.

"No fair!" Yoyo yelled, pointing at him. "Stealing isn't very heroic!"

"Not unless it's stealing from a villain," he called back, walking calmly towards them. Yoyo jumped on her feet, fists raised as she stood in front of Hanabi.

"Don't get cocky, just 'cause you've taken down one of the Pillar Women!" Yoyo declared. Yuzuru raised his fists as well, and the pipes he was controlling all began to move around him like projectiles about to be let loose on the two girls. "As long as we have the hostages, we have the upper hand!"

Miyuki was sprinting around frantically, faster than any of them could move, and Yoyo almost didn't see her run past as something slashed at the mask on her face. Her mask dropped to the ground before she realised it, and Hanabi let out a frightened cry as Miyuki tackled her, the two tumbling along the ground before Miyuki managed to wrap her legs around Hanabi's arms and waist. Hanabi was effectively restrained as Miyuki extended metal claws from her hands, and she held Hanabi's jaw as the claws were pressed to her throat.

"Give up!" Miyuki shouted. "Give us the hostages in exchange for your friend!"

Oh, now they were being really mean about it! Did this count as something Skathi would scold them for? They weren't actually going to hurt Hanabi and Emiko, but were the threats enough to get them in trouble? Man, being a villain in this situation was way easier than a hero's role.

If she were a villain—a real rough and tough, no cares at all kind of villain—what would she do in this situation?

Ah, she didn't need to ask herself that. She was already mimicking villains from a show she'd seen. And aside from the one whose name she'd burrowed, there was one who was even more evil than him.

Yoyo let out a sinister laugh, quiet at first, and then she threw herself back, arms held out, as she started to guffaw in earnest. Hanabi paled at the sight of her, and Yuzuru faltered a little as Yoyo laughed louder and louder.

"Yoyo-san!?" Hanabi screamed, shocked at being abandoned by her teammate so easily.

"Yoyo-san?" Yoyo echoed. She reached into her star and pulled two tactical knives out, wielding them in each hand confidently. "You must be mistaken. I, DIYoyo, am a villain most foul! As long as I breathe, you'll never take the hostages from me! Let it rip, Hanadisi!"

She sucked in a deep breath and held it just in time for Hanabi to let loose another burst of pink mist. Miyuki scrambled off of her, panicking, and Hanabi jumped to her feet and ran as Yoyo charged towards Miyuki through the mist. Yuzuru tried to give chase, but Hanabi crashed into him and continued to expel her Dream Mist from her hands and mouth. Yuzuru tried to pry her off of him, grunting from the effort as they both rolled on the ground, and Hanabi was clearly flailing about with her other hand in an attempt to pull the mask from his face.

Yoyo managed to get close to Miyuki as the girl searched through the mist for her. It was obvious that her helmet was keeping the mist out, but there was more than one way to skin a cat! (Yoyo patted herself on the back for that pun.) The moment Miyuki was in view, Yoyo pulled her leotard open and unleashed as much water as she could muster without running out. She wanted to keep a good few dozen gallons left inside, especially since you never knew when you'd need some sea water, and she watched as Miyuki was hit point blank with a jetstream of water all at once. The poor girl barely had a chance to scream as she was knocked back and sent tumbling through the area in the thick spew of water, and Yoyo only let up on the torrent when she saw Miyuki manage to grab onto one of the warehouses with her claws and begin to climb its wall for safety.

Miyuki was drenched and her tail was curled up against herself as she hung from the wall, a tiny ball of a kitty, and she batted her helmet from her head and gasped for air as water spilled out from inside. Her helmet tumbled into the remaining water that was moving past Miyuki's position, and it floated a good few feet away before coming to a stop near the back of the warehouse.

She heard a crash from where Hanabi and Yuzuru were, and Yoyo looked back in time to see Yuzuru stumble away from a large metal dome that was embedded into the ground. Yoyo couldn't see any sign of Emiko and Hanabi, and she sprinted out of the mist to take a breath as she tried to look around for her. She scooped up Mally-chan as she did so, wielding it confidently as she watched Yuzuru roll his shoulders and approach her again, and it was only when she heard a wail from inside of the metal dome next to him that she realised where Hanabi and Emiko were.

Oh.

Well, they had fun while it lasted.

"It's just you and me, Diyoyo Brandyoyo," Yuzuru announced. Oh, she never considered using the surname too! Yoyo liked this guy's style. He threw something up and down, like one would play with a baseball bat, and Yoyo recognised it as one of the balls Hanabi kept on her belt. They were bombs loaded with her Dream Mist, right? Oh, sneaky boy! "Hand over the hostages and we can end this peacefully."

Yoyo smirked and stanced up with Mally-chan. "You only got one 'a those things, hero!" she shouted back. "Guess how many I've got?"

Yuzuru faltered. He looked at the dome next to him, doing some mental gymnastics, and then he looked back at her.

"You're bluffing," he decided.

"Sure am!" And then Yoyo held her chest out, loud and proud, as she unleashed thirty baseballs at high velocity in Yuzuru's direction.

Yuzuru was pelted nonstop by the baseballs, and he was quick to bring the metal pipes nearby in front of himself to block them. But as the baseballs collided with the pipes, the loud clangs they let out clearly began to irritate his ears. He was cringing, shoulders hunched as he cradled the bomb against his chest, and Yoyo licked her lips as she sprinted forward with Mally-chan in hand.

She wound up and prepped to slam him against the dome, grinning maniacally as she shouted, "Steamroller!"

Something slammed into Yoyo from her left. She felt metal pelting her, warping around her, and before she realised it, Yoyo was slammed up against the dome and welded against it by the mass of pipes that were wrapped around her. Mally-chan dropped to the ground with a sad clang. Despite Yoyo's attempt to break free, all she succeeded in doing was absorbing the pipe closest to the star on her chest and opening up a hole in the dome where it'd been welded to it.

Yoyo watched as Yuzuru dropped the pipes with a grunt, and it was like the ability to use Tetsuya's Quirk had left him entirely. He scratched at his wrist and tore the mask from his face, gasping for fresh air as he did so.

When he reached over and grabbed Yoyo's hand, Yoyo was surprised to see him thinking hard about what to say to her.

"Heh, so you managed to capture me, DIYoyo," Yoyo scoffed. She was smirking at him, keeping up her villain act. "Not many can say they've accomplished that much—"

"I will give you the limited edition azuki bean flavoured madeleines that sold out in six hours last December," Yuzuru told her firmly, "if you give me the hostages."

Ah?

L—Limited edition snacks?

Yoyo's act faltered as she looked at Yuzuru with hungry eyes. Despite her very filling breakfast this morning, Yoyo's stomach growled loudly enough that it was a third participant in the conversation.

"Yoyo-san, no!" Hanabi called from inside the dome.

Yoyo let out a whimper as she struggled against her binds. "But they're limited edition!" she sobbed. "Papa couldn't even get his hands on some for me! I always wanted to taste those ones!"

"We can ask Kousaki-san and Ono-san to bake them for you!"

"But it's not the same! They're not the limited edition ones!"

Yuzuru's grip on her hand tightened. "Yoyo-san, I will give you six—no, ten whole boxes of individually packed azuki bean madeleines if you give me the hostages. One box for each hostage."

Yoyo's stomach growled even louder. She squirmed and let out a wail.

"Deal!" she shouted. "I'll take the deal!"

She felt Yuzuru's Quirk reach into her, almost as though it was wrapping itself around her body, and Yoyo watched as Yuzuru's eyes began to glow brightly. He took a step back and rubbed at his wrist. She glanced at her own, and on the wrist of the hand he'd held, Yoyo could see a tattoo peeking out from under the bindings that wasn't there before.

"Alright, the deal is made," Yuzuru sighed. "Where are the hostages, Yoyo-san? I'll give you the madeleines when you give them to me."

It was that easy? Yoyo licked her lips and beamed at him. She shook her chest back and forth, and then the first of the hostages slowly slithered out of the star on her chest and plopped onto the ground.

Yuzuru stared at it blankly. The second hostage slithered out, landing on top of the first, and the third began to come out.

"Normally I can't stuff living things in my star," Yoyo bragged. "But I got super lucky with the hostages being made of wood and sacks, right?"

Yuzuru's expression became grim as he knelt down next to the hostages. The fourth and fifth came out at the same time, and he looked back up at Yoyo when the sixth began to come out.

"What did you just say, Yoyo-san?" he asked, voice quiet.

"I got lucky the hostages weren't real people! It was super smart of us to put them in my star, right? I couldn't do that with a real person at all!"

The last three hostages tumbled to the ground. Yuzuru stumbled back, landing on his behind as he sat and stared at the hostages, and he buried his face in his hands before rolling onto his side and curling up in a ball.

Ten boxes of madeleines manifested in the air behind him, landing on top of each other neatly, and Yoyo beamed even brighter as Miyuki approached the group and Tetsuya began to stir from his sleep.

She totally aced playing the part of a villain, even if they didn't win this match! Some things were worth negotiating with terrorists for. Like food!

She'd thought they hadn't won when they walked back to the surveillance room. But Skathi's grim expression and Tetsuya's rising anger made it very obvious that the Pillar Women had won.

Skathi had her head thrown back, eyes squeezed shut while her hands were on her hips, and she'd been quiet for a few seconds as the six students stood in front of the crowd of giggling, breathless students in their class. Yoyo was proud of herself as some of them whispered the things she'd said in the fight to each other, and even puffed her chest out when they started coming up with names for themselves for their own matches.

She was an inspiration and she knew it.

"Right," Skathi finally sighed. She lowered her head, thousand-yard stare apparent, and she asked the class, "We've already discussed this, but who would like to announce which team won in this exercise?"

Tetsuya's best friend, Aoi, was jumping up and down as she waved a hand about. Skathi scrunched up her face and reached up to pinch at her brow.

"Yes, Suzuki?" she groaned.

"Pillar Women sweep!" Aoi practically screamed.

Skathi let loose another sigh and hung her head. "Yes. It was a 'sweep'."

"W—" Tetsuya was gesturing wildly as he looked at the others frantically. "We restrained the villains and negotiated the hostages back—"

"The hostages are living creatures," Yuzuru muttered in a depressed tone. He was looking at empty air, his normally friendly expression now flat and blank. "Yoyo-san can't put living creatures into her Quirk."

It seemed to take a second for the words to sink in, but Yoyo wasn't sure what the point of Yuzuru's statement was. Sure, living creatures couldn't be put into her Quirk, but the hostages weren't actually alive! They just had to act like they were!

Tetsuya's arms fell limply to his sides. He looked past Yuzuru, directly at Yoyo, and his face was scrunched up so tightly that he resembled a shar-pei. Yoyo bit back a laugh as she munched on one of the madeleines Yuzuru had given her, and she found herself in umami heaven… Gosh, no wonder these were limited edition! No wonder they sold out in six hours! Yoyo made the right call to strike a deal for ten boxes of these bad boys.

"They're allowed to kill the hostages?" Miyuki asked, stunned.

Hanabi and Emiko were sweating bullets as they avoided looking at the hero team. Yoyo looked at them, though, and she was confused as she asked, "We killed the hostages? When?"

Skathi cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest. "The hostages were killed by all three villains when they were loaded into Yoyo Yoyo's Quirk," she explained. "You're to act as though the hostage dummies are real people, and when you piled them into Yoyo Yoyo's Quirk, you killed them instantaneously."

Yoyo let out a loud gasp. No way, she killed the hostages!? Why didn't anyone tell her!?

Yoyo dropped to her knees and started wailing. "What if they had families?" she sobbed. "Some of them were kid-sized! Hana-chan, Emimi, why'd you let me murder!?"

Hanabi was still avoiding looking her way, but Emiko at least knelt down next to her and rubbed her back soothingly as she cried like a baby on the ground. She was making soothing sounds and doing her best to reassure Yoyo, but now Yoyo felt terrible. If she'd known that she was going to kill the hostages by doing that, she wouldn't have agreed to it! Only villains killed people!

She heard Tetsuya mumble a frustrated, "You've got to be kidding me," to himself. Yoyo lifted her glasses from her face and wiped at her eyes, and just when Emiko asked if anyone had any tissues, Yoyo reflexively pulled a whole box out of her star and offered them to Emiko.

A few used tissues of snot later, Yoyo and the others rejoined their class as the next group were called upon to start. Yuzuru approached her as Emiko tried to look for someone to help comfort Yoyo, and he gave her a nudge with his elbow as he tried to smile at her.

"For what it's worth," he told her, "that was a fun match. You're really unstoppable, Yoyo-san. It's admirable. I'd love to borrow your Quirk one day in the field."

Yoyo looked up at Yuzuru with wide eyes. He thought she was admirable? Unstoppable? No one ever said those things to her before… Kiaria had said Yoyo had the makings to be a great hero in the entrance exam, and that she was definitely going to enter the heroics department, but when had anyone said they wanted to be like Yoyo? Borrow Yoyo's Quirk?

Her eyes watered up anew, and Yoyo started wailing again as she loudly cried, "Thank you, Yuzu-kun! I'll treasure your madeleines for the rest of time!"

"Ah, won't they expire?"

"Not as long as I keep them in my star!" she sobbed.

Yuzuru seemed pleased with the answer. He gave Yoyo a wave as he turned to head back towards Tetsuya, smiling a little more in earnest now, and Yoyo was relieved when others approached her to comfort her. Some of them complimented her Quirk. Some of them complimented her commitment to the bit. Some of them even asked for suggestions on what their villain names should be during their exercises.

Yoyo just sniffled and smiled at them all. This was so different to middle school. She'd do anything to make sure it stayed this way, where she wasn't just stupid, ditzy Yoyo who no one took seriously. Class 1-B genuinely liked Yoyo, and she was blessed to have been accepted by them all so readily in their first week of classes.

She wiped a happy tear from her eye and decided, right then and there, that she'd treat every single one of them to her papa's special ramen one weekend. Something to show her appreciation for them all.

It would be perfect.