VCR_CAT

Tora Mori After spending time riding, Tora had given Gil an earful for a lifetime. After that, she didn't do much of anything else. Dinner came and pass, but she was too tired and sore to make much of conversation. Then, she had retired to what would be her dorm. However, Tora couldn't quite fall asleep. Just outside the bedrooms there was a small common room connected. It really wasn't much of anything-- a particle-board table, a small counter with a sink, a mini fridge, and a microwave, and a few wooden chairs with an uncomfortable couch tucked away at the far end. At the table, Tora had her brother's deck spread out across the table, and she sat their with her head cradled in her hands, just trying to make sense of it all. She had seen her brother duel a hundred times over, and each time the moves just... made sense. When he did his turn, there was no question whether he had made the right move or not. Sure at first some people would doubt his decisions, but when the duel would play out all doubt would be gone in an instant. He knew just the right moves to make at the right time, even those that didn't seem obvious at all. Some people accused him of cheating, but there was never any evidence beyond just him making a good move. If they ever lucked out with an interview, he would always tell them the same thing: "I never plan these things out. I just run with my gut and my gut hasn't been wrong yet!" But Tora didn't have his gut instinct, and every one of the card's effects and implications were just another language to her. What would he say to new duelists that didn't have quite a grasp at the game yet? "First, you need to know your deck. Every card, inside and out. And I don't mean memorize their effects word for word, nobody has time for that. I mean, well it's hard to say... it's like... building a relationship with your deck. You gotta spend time with it, you gotta know it, what it likes to do, what it hates to do, you know maybe take it out for dinner every once and while." Sometimes people laughed at that joke, but it often fell flat. But Tora knew the deck. It was her brother's deck, why shouldn't she know it? So why wasn't any of this easy?! It should be! Finding itself in the middle of the spread of the cards was her duel dragon, Mach Accel Dragon. She had yet to summon it any practice sessions. It wasn't a matter of not knowing how to Synchro Summon, she knew how to do that. The problem was partially her brother's deck and getting the levels of the monsters to add up just right. He always knew how to do it and whenever the field came together for a synchro summon it was like poetry in motion. But not for her. Every time she tried the total levels would be either too high or too low and she would be forced to start over. And when she did get close to summoning it, there would be this overwhelming feeling in her mind and her symbol would start to burn. When Zirco summoned his Duel Dragon he made it look so effortless, what was with that?! Tora gingerly picked up the card and looked it over. Her eyes seemed drawn to it and there was a little tingle in her fingers, but she couldn't tell if that was her mind playing tricks on her, or the card itself. Every time she looked at this card it felt like it was trying to tell her something, but she could never figure it out, and the harder she tried the worse her confusion got. Tora let out a sigh and put the card back on the table. She would continue to stare at her cards well into the night before falling asleep at the table, dreams riddled with card effects and failed combos.

Rosha "Funny thing is some prisons where I'm from have larger cells than this." "That's absurd, why would you waste so much space?!" Rosha said, with a look of confusion written on her face. "Some of our villages don't even give them cells! They would just hang them high in the air. Not many people want to risk falling to the ground, and usually the Kyrriks like to prowl around below." Kelsey, however, was just looking at her phone, and Rosha only noticed too late that her roommate was likely not listening. "Oh, Houses. Right. Well, I kinda wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. But I'm here to be a mech pilot so I guess best bet is to go with the military looking one. Bet I'd get along with Mr. Roboto though; seems a lot more fun than the girl. How bout you?" Rosha opened her mouth to answer, but Kelsey snapped her finger suddenly. "Actually, before you answer that, my friend's at a burger place near here do you wanna come with me to check it out?" Rosha looked at Kelsey with her mouth agape, unsure whether to express her frustration with Kelsey's rudeness or to express her confusion with what a "burger" was. The word didn't translate very well, and Rosha quickly looked up what it was on her own phone, and after getting lost for a moment on the device she finally found the page, but the explanation was even more confusing. What was beef? Oh, okay the meat from a "cow", but what was a cow? Oooooh, okay, so a cow is a fatty livestock mammal native to earth. Large, bulky, feeds on vegetables, mostly defenseless. So that meat was... cooked? Why would anyone cook perfectly good-- Rosha looked up from her quick fact search only to find that Kelsey had already left the room. Rosha's face slowly contorted into a fierce glare as she growled loudly. "I wonder if all humans are so disgustingly rude," Rosha hissed under her breath. "Whatever. She can waste her time all she wants. I came here to be the best pilot." Rosha stretched out and, still in her casual fatigues, exited her dorm and made her way to the exterior of the building. Finally being on solid land with real gravity meant that she could finally cut loose around the property, and that was exactly what she intended. Afterwards, she would find the "military-looking one". If she wanted to be the best pilot, then she needed to get a jump on making a good first impression.

Rosha "Oh, Rosha." Kelsey grinned at Rosha. Her grin wavered for a moment. "What, something the matter?" She said, sounding a bit frustrated herself and shook her head. "No, never mind, we're gonna be stuck together for a while so, uh..." She stuck her hand out towards the much smaller girl, for a handshake. "Whatever beef either of us has doesn't matter from here on out alright? This place looks kinda lame don't it? Maybe we could get an arcade game in here sometime." Rosha looked at the hand for a moment, a hint of confusion in her gaze. "Oh right, that human thing," She said and grasped the hand for the shake, though her grip was unpracticed and awkward. "I suppose you're right, though I'll probably be too busy training to be the best pilot for games anymore." Rosha swung off the hanging bar, but with how small their dorm was she didn't have much room to stick any sort of landed and ended landing on the bed with her rear. Considering the rather cement-like texture of the mattress, this wasn't a terribly pleasant experience. "And once more, I agree. I'm used to much more open spaces for sleeping than this! What is this, a prison?! Anyways, did you decide on a house in that party back there?"

Aria As the two of them made their way down the hallways, Masaru was the first one to start talking. “Hey, your face is really red. Are you sure you’re not getting sick? We can probably still go back and ask the doc--oh wait you’re not sick, you’re blushing, right?” Aria started to say multiple different sentences, but found herself unable to actually say anything. Ultimately all she could do was realize that she was still holding Masaru's arm and abruptly let go and pull her arm in. He nodded sagely. “No worries. The doc was just havin’ some fun with us. Promise I’m not gonna make it weird or anything.” Aria took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. The red faded from her face a bit, though it was still tinged pink a bit. "Th-thanks. I'm not great with... those kinda jokes, or whatever." For a moment, there was a silence as the two of them continued through the hospital. “So… scared of needles huh?” Masaru chuckled. “You mighta noticed but can’t say I care for them myself. They didn’t used to bother me but, well…” the metal of his arm rang out softly as he rapped his knuckles against it, “lose your arm and you get a lot more nervous about letting any sort of sharp metal things near you.” "Yeah I don't... like 'em, but not really for the same reason, obviously," Aria laughed a little, before realizing the insensitivity of her joke and swallowed it back. "No, I'm just... really bad with the blood stuff. It's kind of a long story, though." Secretly, she hoped that she could leave it at that. "It's no big deal though, I'm doin' just fine so far!"

Itsuki After the rather uncomfortable moment at the ice cream store, school life had returned to normal for the next few days. With each day that they didn't go through with quirk training, Itsuki had grown comfortable assuming that it probably wasn't going to happen at all. Yet, after those few days he would find himself incredibly disappointed. "Alright you bums! I know you're all excited for what I have in store for you today!" Ms. Hitotsume started writing on the board in rather large letters. When she was done, it read 'Extreme Quirk Testing'. Itsuki felt his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. "I've only gotten a taste of your quirks, and how they function! But today, I want to see you go all out! So let's go!" The students followed their teacher to a building just outside the main classrooms. Inside and out it was stark white and very simple in its design. The moment they walked through the doorway all sound from the outside was cut out, and Itsuki found he could hear the breathing and movements around him to an unsettling degree. "Here we have the Training Facility! Virtually indestructible rooms where we can simulate many different scenarios! State of the art technology, all at my disposal to tortur-I mean train you!" Ms. Hitotsume said. "Now please select a room, and we'll get started with how far we can push your quirks!" "She just said torture, did anyone just hear torture?" Itsuki asked the other students, but everyone was already very gung-ho about what they could accomplish in these supposedly indestructible rooms. "Are you kidding me right now?!" It didn't matter, though. The other students were so excited to flex the full strength of their quirks that nobody cared how unpleasant it would be. Itsuki knew his quirk pretty well. He knew it wasn't a matter of muscles, or anything like a resistance that can be trained. Itsuki was sure that the room didn't need to be indestructible at all for him, but what if it needed to be indestructible for the tests. Itsuki kept this in the back of his mind as he entered the next available room.

Itsuki "My couch is always open..." Ms. Hitotsume said, leaning into Itsuki closer. "These make for a pretty good pillow you know? You can rely on your tea-cher." She then laughed. "Well? Is your heart throbbing yet?!" Itsuki sat there in stunned silence, the spoonful of ice-cream that he was about eat now running down the side of his face. "In all honesty, Itsuki...I can make arrangements any time you want...so please don't hesitate to ask for help." She shoveled in another scoop of ice cream. "It's what we heroes do best, right?" "I think I need an adult..." Itsuki muttered as he attempted to wipe the ice cream from his face, missing his mark in the process. By the time Itsuki managed to snap out of his stupor, he noticed that Ms. Hitotsume was still talking. "...Quirks are like muscles...if you know how to work it out, it'll get stronger. You'll be able to control it better! Which is what we're gonna work on with you losers next!" That shouldn't be too bad, Itsuki thought to himself. It's not like my quirk's one of those super-strength ones or whatever. It probably won't be anything too physical or difficult. Itsuki then thought more about his quirk, and almost inhaled his spoon as he realized what his quirk exercise was going to be like. "Haha, well hoo wee too bad some of us have quirks that can't really get better am I right my lads?" Itsuki laughed nervously, though he knew deep down that he wasn't kidding anyone. The problem with his quirk was that not only did making a barrier in itself require focus, he also needed to maintain a very accurate and consistent mental image of the shape, size, and position of the barrier. If Ms. Hitotsume intended for him to eventually reach the stage of being able to maintain complex shapes with ease, he could only imagine the kind of mental strain he was going to be put under. Just the thought of the headaches alone made Itsuki wish his quirk was something as simple as just working out.

Aria “She’s right, Doc,” Masaru had said. “We’re just friends. I don’t really understand how this ‘technology’ tree of magic works, really, and Aria is just an awesome person who agreed to help me figure stuff out.” He smiled at her. “Really appreciate it by the way. Good to know I didn’t accidentally get you sick.” While Aria would be lying if she said that the mention of being just friends hadn't stung a little, she knew that he was right. They had only known her for a couple of days, so what more could it be? Nonetheless, Masaru expressed the same discomfort towards needles that Aria had, and this prompted a laugh from the doctor. "Apologies, I don't mean to be rude. It's just so fascinating to me how something so small can scare so many." He glanced at the needles. "I'm sure you two have seen much more frightening things in the past. But, I suppose, everyone has something." "Honestly does anyone like them?" Aria muttered to herself. Regardless, he asked for Masaru's arm and gave him the medicine. As he finished up some paperwork, the doctor was soon seeing them on their way. "By the way if either of you see Angela make sure she's not doing anything dangerous again. While this city is relatively safe there are still dangerous places and that girl seems to find them all." "Will do!" Aria said. The doctor hesitated a moment before, with the same cheeky grin as before, finished "Have fun with your date." Aria's face turned a bright red once again and she grabbed Masaru's metal arm, dragging him towards the door. "Alright well we'll be on our way thanks for everything have a good day!"

Rosha Finally the party had ended and the students were given directions to their rooms as well as whom they would be rooming with. Rosha had taken only a cursory glance at the list of names, having not spent enough time around any single person in particular to remember their names she was only really able to recognize her own. Once she had the route to her room figured out, she gathered what few belongings she had and made her way through the facility. The rooms they were given were stark and bare, with bleached white walls and simple beds laid bare with their sheets folded neatly on top. Unpacking and making her bed was a quick and easy process, and once she was done Rosha reached into her duffel bag and retrieved a pull-up bar that she promptly got to work fastening to the wall just above her bed. Once all of her work was done, she clambered up and let herself hang upside-down from the crook of her knees with a deep, satisfied sigh. Then, the door opened and in entered the one girl that kept beating her at that one electronic screen-game back on the ship. "You?! You're my roommate?!" Rosha exclaimed with apparent surprise and just a hint of disgust.

Itsuki Upon completion of the fight, Hitotsume feigned praise for the students before chastising them of their poor performance on their very first ever outing and battle. Once the authorities had shown up to clean up their mess, the students had retreated to a nearby ice cream shop for a little bit of a cooldown. Itsuki had ordered a double-scoop chocolate and was tucked well into his ice cream when the teacher spoke to the other students "So...what do you think of hero-ing?!" The teacher asked them, with curiosity drilled into her expression. "Totally wanna give up, don't ya?" Itsuki rolled his eyes at this provocation. "Not happening!" Hibiki answered. "It wasn't easy getting the okay to come up here, so I'm not wasting it by giving up. I'm going to start training my Quirk like crazy to catch up to everyone else, too!" "I admire your zeal Himura-san. As for me," Yuuka said. "Well, I must say, it was certainly a far more exhilarating experience then I was expecting today. And painful for that matter." Nodding to herself she then said, "but I still had fun working together with my fellow classmates, and it certainly was a joy to see the criminals put away. And I look forward to many more experiences of the matter." uch enthusiasm for such a one note Quirk! But maybe it'll develop and evolve into something way more impressive!" Hitotsume said. "Or, it'll just continue being super lame!" She laughed, waving her hand in the air. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" Looking over to Itsuki, she frowned. "What's wrong with you over there, Shield boy?" Two eyes started to make their way across each of her arms, sneaking into her palms. She stuck them out at him, as they stared directly at his face. Itsuki almost glared down at the eyes. "Feeling un-eye-sy?!" Itsuki swallowed a mouthful of ice cream and lowered the cone from his mouth, chocolate stains scattered around his lips. "Impromptu teamwork ain't my thing, 'kay? But don't think I'm just gonna drop out just 'cause we made some bad moves out there," Itsuki said, returning to his ice-cream and muttering under his breath. "Anything's better than bein' kicked out by ma. Don't have to many couches I can hop between."

Aria Masaru and Aria entered the doctor's office and set themselves down. Surprisingly enough, the place looked very, very normal by Aria's standards. She began to wonder what would lead to such similarities between Earth and a completely alien dimension, but abandoned the thought immediately. Whatever the reason, it would probably end up being too much of a headache to understand, let alone listen to. "Well, at least it's not Angela again," the doctor said. Aria snorted. "But it seems that I'm getting a lot of Mauvache's people in here. I have to say it's kind of stressful to be working on such well loved people." The doctor performed his examination which was, again, very routine and surprisingly mundane. Who knew something so average could feel so out-of-place. "Best I can tell is your body is yet to be used to the environment of this planet. Surprised it took this long to hit though." He leaned back and typed something into a pad on the wall. As he waited for the result of whatever it was he looked towards Aria. "You should probably get checked out too if you've had any intimate contact with this young man. It's not airborne but any exchanges of bodily fluids could cause the infection to settle in you as well."  "Wha-- No no no we didn't-- it's nothing like that!" Aria stammered, her face becoming very red very quickly. "I feel fine, really!" A beeping noise sounded and the doctor reached over to grab a cylinder that had popped up on the desk. He took out a long needle with some purple fluid and leaned in towards Masaru. "This will only sting for a moment. The sickness should clear up by the end of the day. You may experience some side effects though. Dizziness, possible audio hallucinations, but other than that you'll be good to go by tomorrow." "Well, thanks for everything! We should really be on our way, RIGHT MASARU?" Aria said, eyes fixed on the needle.

Tora Mori With the duel sims offline, Tora had gravitated back to the garage to try and get her mind off the steadily approaching mission. She wasn't quite comfortable enough to ask any of the staff or the other subjects to practice dueling with her, and any attempts at just spending time with her cards alone had always ended fruitlessly in frustration and even more confusion. Even as she did her favorite thing, working on her bike, the anxiety of having to duel with actual stakes was always at the back of her mind. Of course, it didn't help that her bike was already fully cleaned and in mint condition. All there was to do was to really look at the work that was already done. Without saying a word, she put her tools away and went to go change into her riding gear. While she hoped that being out on the track would help take her mind off things, she was only technically correct. The Crosswhip that Tora was used to riding was once a kitbashed collection of refurbished parts, many discontinued or rescued from the recycling plant. On the inside, it wasn't a pretty or a normal bike and it was riddled with flaws. Many of the parts were too heavy, pipes and assemblies didn't naturally didn't fit together, some parts were designed for faster, larger bikes and others were made for glorified scooters. Still, they figured out how to make it all work, and even leaned into the weight flaws to give the bike an easier time sticking to the road as it hurled itself around corners. The result was a beautiful mess of compromise and ingenuity. But that wasn't what she road this time. After Kaibacorp had its way with the Crosswhip, what she road was a scientifically tuned state-of-the-art piece of sophisticated technology. When she thought she feathered the throttle, the bike lurched forward suddenly. When she thought she was lightly squeezing the breaks, the bike almost flipped over vertically as it screeched to a halt. Tora's first lap around the circuit looked like a beginner was just learning how to ride for the first time, and to her that was how it felt. By the second lap she was beginning to properly get the hang of things, then following the third and so on she was soon riding like her old self before. But if there was anyone who was going to get an earful after the ride, it was definitely the mechanic.

Itsuki "Well that ain't something you see everyday. Hey sis, I don't think I've ever seen one of your stomps stopped in it's tracks before!" Itsuki peaked his eyes open at the realization that he wasn't, in fact, pulverized. The girl's attack had hit, and hit hard, but she had rebounded off and landed some distance away. "The brat just got lucky is all! I didn't put enough step into it!" She yelled, before breaking into a run. "It's not luck, that's how my quirk works you idiot!" Itsuki shouted back, getting more and more irate by the people he was surrounded by. The girl's run was quickly interrupted by a volley of beam fire, but their teacher's attack ultimately served no purpose in halting the thug's assault. Instead, it turned her into a human buzz-saw, spinning through the street without stopping. Ms. Hitotsume attempted more beam attacks, but each was as fruitless as the next. "Well then." Ms. Hitotsume said, looking at her nails, and then to Itsuki. "Think you can stop that with your fancy shield?" "Oh my god," Itsuki said in flawed english, gritting his teeth and doing his best to conjure up another shield. Sweat trickled down his cheek as he took as strong of a stance as he could, and while the shield he produced was the same dark-grey colour, its opacity was noticeably flickering this time. "Stop or I'll turn him into a vampire!" The bat girl had then shouted out. Itsuki risked allowing his eye to dart in their direction to see the bat girl poised to take a bite out of the other thugs neck. "And then he'll get fried like some cheap fast food by the sun up there, because that's what happens!" "That's not how momentum works, Hibuki!" Itsuki shouted the wrong name, but his patience had been broken a bit too much, as his shield became significantly more translucent.

Itsuki Watanabe Through their combined effort, the students had managed to hold back the thug's attack while also managing to take him down in the process. When the wave of energy subsided, Itsuki let himself slide to the ground down Herc's back and breathed a heavy sigh. The thugs were saying something, and one of them started to move before a beam lanced across the street. There was their teacher, standing before them. "You boys alright?" She said, rather apathetically. "I haven't been using my Quirk in this fight 'til just now...so with the rest of your support, I think we can close this out." "Are you kidding me?!" Itsuki complained loudly as he pushed himself to his feet. "Were you underestimating me this whole time!?" The other thug wasn't handled at all, contrary to what Ms. Hitostume said, and leapt high into the sky, spinning into an axe kick aimed right at Herc, Hibiki, and Itsuki. Ms. Hitotsume moved to use her quirk, but found herself blinded by the sun's light. "Ah geez...I forgot my sunglasses." "ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!" Itsuki shouted, panicking in the moment and shutting his eyes tight as he did his absolute best to focus his quirk. Just above the trio formed a convex circle just barely covering the three of them. The circle was a dark-gray, almost black colour, but it was also mostly opaque.

Itsuki "The same dumb trick isn't gonna work twice..." He said, as he rolled his shoulders. "Time's up." While Itsuki's attack had been successful, it wasn't effective enough at knocking him down to let the others restrain the villain. Because of that, he began to release a slowly expanding dome of energy causing damage to everything in its path. Itsuki skipped backwards and joined the rest of the group, where Herc had taken a defensive position in front of the dome, and planted his hands directly onto it. "What do you think that's gonna do, Gaijin?!" Itsuki called out to Herc, but he either couldn't hear him, or chose not to. Either way, he was at least somehow managing to hold his position against the dome, but not stopping it outright. "Itsuki, think... you can... lend me a... hand?" Herc grunted through his effort. Itsuki shook his head, stepped forward tentatively and generated a barrier, inching it towards the dome. However, it just simply passed through with no effect. "No can do! Whatever this shit's made out of, it's not matter!" At that moment, Itsuki felt pretty helpless, figuring that their best course of action would be to break away and cut their losses. After all, this guy was just blowing his whole load; how much more could he do after this? Itsuki was about to voice this, but his teammates had different plans. Yuuka had decided to launch another attack and Hibiki placed herself behind Herc, pushing on his back to help in his effort. "Damn idiots," Itsuki muttered, taking position beside Hibiki and planting his back against Herc, pushing with his leg and putting all of his effort into it.

Aria Much to Aria's surprise, the Hospital's interior was, well, a hospital. It was nothing more than a normal-ass hospital that she would expect to see in the real world, and this fact alone was starting to weird her out. At least the various people crowding the place were as normal for this world as ever, but that only caused them to stand out more in contrast to their surroundings. After being stopped by fans a few times, they made their way to the receptionist who turned out to be a virtual hologram. At least something to make this place feel properly other-worldly. "Oh, Masaru, we have been expecting you. Dr. Akoola is waiting in room 309, on the third floor. If you'd like we could have a guide-bot escort you to the room." As she spoke a small, pill-shaped, robot with clamp-like hands attached to spindly arms came through a tube in the wall and hovered nearby. Aria looked at the robot and blinked. Thinking of how Masaru handled managing his watch earlier, she figured that letting him run off on his own with a small robot was likely to result in more trouble. "You know what, that's fine. I know how to navigate room numbers; I can help him find it," Aria said somewhat nervously. "C'mon, let's hurry up before you sneeze up a storm."

Itsuki "WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING OVER THERE!? YOU GONNA MAKE THE GIRLS DO ALL THE WORK FOR YOU!?" Ms. Hitotsume yelled. "YOU'RE PATHETIC EXCUSES FOR MEN! NOT GET YOUR ASS IN THE FIGHT, OR I'M GONNA JOIN IN, AND WHOOP YOUR ASSES WITH HIM!" Itsuki couldn't help but sigh and roll his eyes as he moved in closer, doing his best to remain in the blind-spot of the thug as he did so. All of this was a bit too difficult with how many of them were just throwing their bodies at the villain, especially with how they had no planning as they did so. It was chaos, how the hell did the teacher expect anyone to jump in there and be able to do anything? As Hibiki and Yuuka had thrown themselves at the villain, they were both promptly plucked by their arms and tossed aside. By now, the only people left to give a go where Itsuki, Taro, and... "We know you had no choice, but thank you for flying with Beetle Airlines!" Speaking of the devil, Herc appeared and slammed his body right into the villain, and in doing so a bright light shone from the thug's body. "Now you've gone and done it." He groaned, as he was able to lift Herc off the ground with ease. "I ain't got much time with it...but man you really gave me some juice." Itsuki smacked his forehead with his palm. You'd think that Herc's first attack would have given him enough of a hint. "I gotta admit, I didn't think that's how his quirk worked..." Itsuki could just hear Herc say as he was launched into the air. "Yeah, no shit!" Itsuki called out as his classmate was thoroughly clocked and sent flying through the streets. When Herc landed, Itsuki could hear something about wanting Taro to do something, but honestly at this point it was obvious that just throwing themselves at the villain wasn't ever going to work. They needed some way to get him stunned and vulnerable, and that's where Itsuki would step in. Itsuki stepped in a bit closer, though there was still a few feet between them, it was still close enough to work. He plucked up a small piece of asphalt and tossed it at the villain, watching the piece of hardened tar bounce off his shoulder harmlessly. "Hey, meat-head!" Itsuki called. "Do you think tossing a bug is impressing anyone? I was doin' that shit when I was a toddler! Why don't you try this on for size!" Itsuki attempted a leg-sweeping motion that he had learned from some old, shitty american film that he watched as a kid but never really understood. His form was terrible and, honestly, to anyone else it would be hard to tell if he was doing it as a legitimate attack or as a joke. Either way, his intent wasn't to actually land the hit, as cool as that would be. Itsuki hoped that, at the least, it would force the thug to raise one or both of his feet, and as he would lower them he would find himself with the rude surprise of a zero-friction barrier where he would normally expect there to be hard ground.

Tora Mori As Tora practically inhaled her plate of waffles, she held no interest in talking with people she didn't particularly know quite yet. Sure the intention of this exercise was to build relations between each other, but this was all way too soon for her. Right now, she only wanted to eat and think about how she was either going to get good at a game she was never particularly skilled at, or how to salvage the state of her D-Wheel. Speaking of which, there was one particular conversation that managed to stand out to her. "I like how my D-Wheel's handlin' now though. It's good stuff. You should try to drive yours soon, ya know?" "Y-Yeah...I...I had thought about it... n-never was... able to just do that b-back at the Turbo Branch..." "We should race some time. Without card games." Tora made an attempt to swallow the sheer amount of waffles currently stuffing her mouth in one go, failing at first and slamming her fist on the table as she staved off choking, and after managing to finally get the mass of food down her throat turned towards Zirco and Jet. "Oh you think yourselves RACE BOYS, don't ya!" She said, tears streaming down her face as she gritted a smile through the pain she felt in her throat. "I might be far from being the best duelist here, but I think I could show you boys a thing or two on the track! If you think you're up for the challenge, that is!"

Hiraku "T-To what are you referring to?" Gabriela asked, refusing to look directly at the boy. "This, er, that's right this is the height of fashion back home! I don't expect the people here to understand our refined tastes though." Hiraku rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, and Melissa shuffled about awkwardly. "Well....let us be off then!" She declared. The trio soon found themselves at the duel hall, where Melissa parted ways. The team was about as large as it had been in past years, though only about half the team were regular faces. Hitomu, their "esteemed" captain, began the meeting by introducing himself and how the team itself was likely to not interact with their captain terribly often, and then proceeded to list his accomplishments. At this point, Hiraku's attention began to divert to anything else but at the topic at hand. This was one of the most insufferable parts about being on the Duel Team, made even worse now that the lucksack Yushiro was on the team as well. It was unfortunate that this was a necessary evil in order to make it to the top of the leaderboards-- the duel team got to enter a lot of tournaments that were either a lot more difficult or impossible to enter as a freelance solo player. Of course, being on the team meant that Hiraku couldn't act how he wanted when he wanted, or else it meant "breaking the code of conduct" and getting kicked off the team, but he sure as hell skirted that line as much as he could. "Any questions any of you want to ask me? If not, I’ll just go ahead and jump right into the mandatory Conduct review we have to do every year.” Hitomu finally wrapped his opening spiel, and without missing a beat while simultaneously still leaning against the nearest wall/sideboard and staring off to space, Hiraku's hand shot up. "Yeah, can we just skip right to the conduct review and get it over with?" Hiraku said with a sigh. Anything to get this stupid meet and rally out of the way as soon as possible.

Rosha "Ohhhhhhh! That's super-cool!" The girl said cheerfully with a smile, prompting Rosha to blink. "Mine's just a standard military mech where I come from, and even then, it's not a very popular one. The name is pretty plain too. What people designed your Mourning Star if you don't mind my asking? Are mechs not very common where you're from? I'm Vivian, by the way. Vivian Marsh." "I am from Khaquia, it's kind of on the edge of human space from what I've heard. Our tech is pretty..." Rosha paused, searching for words. "Simple? Our world is full of big, tall trees and dangerous predators, so we've had to spend more time surviving than studying. But we're darn good at it! Anyways, it's an interesting story about the Mourning Star, see we did need some help from the humans to get it all put together, but--" A loud alarm blared through the hanger, and the pilots were soon being ushered out so that the mechanics could get to work getting everything strapped down and in place. "Drat. Well, my name is Rosha Ta'Megn, a pleasure to meet you, Vivian!" It wasn't long until the Finback was entering atmosphere and touching down on solid ground. The students were lead out of the ship in an orderly fashion and assembled outside where they met the Vice Principal, Emilia Reichen. Everyone was made to stand still and in place, though Rosha could be seen lightly bouncing on her feet, itching to get out of her shoes and onto whatever obstacle course they had. The feeling of real gravity pulling them down was one she swore she would never take for granted ever again. The students were lead into a large auditorium where Reichen introduced them to the leads of the different houses of the school that they would be sorted into. The first was a woman named Kris Ward of Steel Hounds, the house of working hard and becoming elite soldiers with no slacking. Next was a boy wearing a dress named Merlin from the Sun Lizards house, which was for total nerds. Finally, there was a big robot for House Bomb, which was all about slacking off and having fun. Rosha let out a sigh. At least her's was an easy decision. If she wanted to make the biggest impression she could, then there was only one house for her: the Steel Hounds. As the assembly wrapped up, the principal was introduced and a disco ball descended from the ceiling, announcing that it was time to dance and party. Servers flitted between the chairs and students, passing out foods and refreshments. Rosha was drawn to a platter of smoked meats, munching on the snack with a satisfied look on her face. But truth be told, being here and dancing was the last thing she wanted to do with her free time.

Itsuki "Well, if it's a show you need, I'm all for that," Herc said, walking up and cracking his knuckles. "I need to punch someone anyways!" "Wait you idiot, don't just--" Itsuki started to say, but he was too late. Herc had already approached the gangster and thrown his first punch. The punch was, obviously, completely ineffective as the thug redirected and used his quirk to take energy from... some place, and put it right into Herc's stomach, sending the beetle man flying. "Well... that happened," Herc groaned as he cracked his neck. "Guys, be careful! I think his quirk turns him into Bruce Lee!" "Dumb gaijin, of COURSE it wasn't going to work," Itsuki said with a sigh. "A thug like that doesn't ask for you to take the first shot if he doesn't have a trick up his sleeve!" "oh, Hibiki, could you do that thing that you do super well?" Itsuki heard Yuuka say, and scratched his head. "Wait, who was Hibiki again..." "I can do more than just scream you know," Hibiki sighed, followed by a deep breath. Itsuki only had a split second to realize what was coming next as he put two-and-two together with the bat-girl. At the last moment he clasped his hands to his ears as the girl let out a shrill and piercing scream. Despite his efforts, Itsuki still found himself with a harsh headache, pounding eardrums, and he could hear a faint ringing that was taking its sweet time to go away. Note to self, Itsuki thought to himself. Next time you team up with the crazy bat girl, bring earplugs. Through the chaos, a car had been thrown at the villain, but Itsuki had a tough time telling who it was that threw it. Either way, the ear-piercing screech and the thrown vehicle combined weren't enough to take this thug down. "So...you brats really think you can step on our terf, beat up some of my guys, and throw a car at me?!" The man cracked his knuckles, while laughing. "You kids are pretty insane! Sure you don't wanna join the yakuza? Any brat that can put a bruise on me is worth their weight in gold!" He staggered a bit, before stomping his foot down. "Well...the survivors have the best chance of joinin'...so why don't we start initiation!" He screamed, as he took a huge lunge towards Hibiki, twisting his hips and throwing a strong punch. In response, both Hibiki and Yuuka had sprung into action, but the amount of bodies in play was quickly becoming too many. Itsuki glanced over in Herc's direction, to make sure the beetle man's compromised position wasn't being taken advantage of, but then again with an exo-skeleton like that he was probably fine. With that, Itsuki sidled closer to the action, doing his best to get close enough that he would be in range to use his barriers, but not so close to divert attention to himself.

Hiraku "No!" Gabriela said with as stomp of her foot. "The fact that you even suggest something like that is absolutely unacceptable. I don't know how things are in your country but it is the most natural thing for a princess such as I to be given an escort. Normally it would be more than this but I graciously offered you and Melissa the honor of doing it yourselves. Is that not right?" Gabriela said, turning towards the other girl that was with her. "This is simply the proper way to do things, yes?" “I would expect as much, but…” The other girl said quietly, after a few vague gestures. An “um... No, never mind. Um." And then she fell quiet once again. “I’m sorry I’m not much help.” Hiraku sighed. It probably wouldn't do him much good to make the situation much worse. They were going to the same place, after all, and it wasn't a place that he could get away with his usual behavior. Simply ditching them and going there by himself would also be sure to cause its own drama once the strange girl arrived late. As much as he hated it, Hiraku decided that it would be best for himself to take the route of least resistance and cut his losses. "Alright alright, calm down. If you're lost you can just tag along. I'm going to same place," Hiraku said with a sigh. "But don't sweat it, these halls can be confusing sometimes. I know I got lost a bit in my first few weeks." Hopefully this wouldn't be so much that the girl would think they're friends or anything; just enough to get her off his case and leave him alone in the future. "Just a word of advice, I think we're doing a meet in front of the school today. I don't think they've usually done one at this time of the year, but I think the prez might be pulling more strings than I'm comfortable realizing. So, you'll probably be in front of the school dressed like... that. Just so you know."

Rosha "Heeeey! Good job out there! I like your mech!" Rosha turned to the source of the voice. They looked to be another student, though it was hard to judge human age by appearance. At first Rosha thought it was just the short ones that were the young ones, but then some of the short ones end up being quite old so it was very hard to tell. While the compliment was appreciated, even Rosha couldn't deny that she was late to the party and wasn't able to accomplish much. "Thank you for the compliment, however I can't take much credit," She said with a sigh. "I'm not used to walking around these... space ships. Especially when they're rocking around because of all the gunfire and nonsense. I tried to get there as fast as I could, but I only caught the tail end." Rosha then turned to her mech and planted her hands on her hips. "I CAN take credit for this beaut, however! You're looking at the Mourning Star! One of the first mechs designed with help from my people! It's a real powerhouse, and once I get better I'm sure to take the battlefield by storm with it!"

Aria “I don’t get it,” Masaru said, rubbing his chin with his index finger and thumb. “Little Slime’s not real? Or… he gains nutrients from the watch instead of minerals? Is that it?” He hummed softly. “Does that mean that every time I’m sending a message to someone, Little Slime gets energy from it? Sort of like how some slimes can draw energy from the sun.” He clapped his hands together. “Okay, that makes sense! Glad to hear that Mauvache is making sure he’s taken care of.” Aria blinked. "I..." she started to say, but paused for a few seconds. "Sure, sure." Aria thought for a moment of how many messages that might mean people would be getting from Masaru. Oh well, cross that bridge later. “Hey guys! Erdrick told me you were both getting to be really big, but you guys are huge now! I hope you don’t mind giving me and my friend a lift?” Neither of the Saddle Slime were opposed. Masaru turned to face Aria. “Aren’t they cool? They’re Saddle Slimes. This one is Cloud,” he gestured to the lighter colored one, “and this one’s Sora,” he gestured to the darker one. “Sora will be the one helping you out to--ACHOO!--sorry,” he grumbled, rubbing his nose. “Sora will be the one helping you out today. She’s super excited if you can’t tell.” Sora, the Saddle Slime in question, made her way over to Aria in a rapid succession of short hops, bouncing and quivering on the spot. “Go ahead and hop on,” Masaru encouraged. “You’ll love it.” "Wait, you said Sora and Cloud? Are you refer--" Aria stopped herself and laughed for a brief second. No, there was no way. She eyed the slime with a fair amount of discomfort. Sor-- Masaru had no problem with his, but also wasn't he a slime as well? Of course he wouldn't have a problem, like if a human was riding another hum-- okay yes, there's a basis for why someone would have a problem with that. "Alright, here goes nothing..." Aria stepped forward and slotted her foot into the saddle's hold, then tried to pull herself up. The saddle slipped around on the slime's body and Aria found herself losing her balance on a couple occasions. Masaru couldn't help but laugh at her attempts, and Aria could feel her face turning red. Finally, she was able to hoist herself up and mount the saddle successfully. "There! No problem! First try!" She grumbled. "Now let's get going!"

Itsuki "Incredible, everyone~! What a fantastic range of quirks you all have~!" Ms. Hitotsume stopped clapping, as she lowered her glasses to scan the students. "But as you can see, their are areas each of you need to improve upon! Whether that be sharpening your reflexes, improving your raw capabilities, or even figuring out how to make up for lacks in your quirks~!" She flexed her own arm, as a large heap of muscle bulged from the fabric of her outfit. "As heroes, we cannot rely on quirk alone! Your entire body is a weapon, and it needs to be sharpened like one! Now, class is dismissed for the day~! Use the rest of the day to prepare for the Hero Training next week~!" Itsuki had let an exhasperated sigh. As fun as being able to let loose with his quirk seemed at first, he couldn't help but feel like this was just a glorified physical education class-- something he was already not very fond of in the first place. As a group, the class returned to the changerooms, everyone abuzz about their quirks and what the proper hero training was going to look like. Itsuki's first thought for how to spend the rest of his day was simple: at the arcade, goofing off with some cartoons, or just watching videos on his phone while lying in bed for the rest of the day. Each option was more tantalizing than the next. Of course, however, listening the chatter of the other students about their quirk performance only reminded him more and more of how the obstacle course ended for him, and so he opted to at least... try... and give... an effort... to practice his quirk. Efforts that only went so far over the course of the next week. Next week's field trip started as one would expect: with boring introductions and explanations. The students were promptly divided into two groups, but Itsuki ended up very disappointed when he discovered that not only was he not assigned to the group with all the cute girls that weren't just goody-two-shoes over-achievers, but that he was also placed under the close, watchful eye of the teacher as well. The other group piled into one of the buses and was sent out to a nice, scenic national park, while Itsuki's group piled into the other and was sent to... "This is Dagoba District," Ms. Hitotsume said, as they all got out of the bus. "There's been a recent rise in gang activity, so we're gonna take out some trash." And, as matters would have it, it wasn't long into their search that a gunshot rang down an alleyway and a small gang of thugs approached the group, each armed with a variety of different weapons. "Hey, you might wanna scram. This town ain't made for kiddies," the leader said. One of them gave Ms. Hitotsume a creepy smile, and licked his lips. "But we'd be glad to give a hottie like yourself the tour of the town." Ms. Hitotsume's brow twitched, before looking down on the three. "Scumbags..." She sighed, before turning back to the students. "Beat these guys up before I kill them, please~." The more... fight-oriented students in the group sprung into action. Between the bat-girl's harassment and the beetle-guy's overwhelming strength, there really wasn't much room for Itsuki to jump in there. He wasn't confident that his shields could block a bullet-- he had never tried that before, and wasn't very willing to try it just yet. Yuuka was eager to observe the team, but it really wasn't long until Herc and Hibiki managed to dispatch each of the thugs. "Great job everyone~." She applauded. "Except you two~!" She pointed to Yuuka and Itsuki. "If you hadn't beaten them, I'd be the one in handcuffs~." "Yeah because I can do any better than the Big Beetle Man," Itsuki grumbled. "Also excuse me, what the fu--" "But these were just the small fry...I suspect they didn't even have quirks. They're working for someone else." And, as if on cue, there were the real thugs. A very normal and rather serious-looking man with gray hair, and a pile of rainbow vomit. "AH! Little kids! You're all so cute!" She began to glow, as she continued to hop up and down. "I could eat you all up! But you're not our target today, so step aside would you?" She spoke, not looking at any of the students, but to Ms. Hitotsume. Ms. Hitotsume, meanwhile, expressed interest in showing off her moves in front of the students, and perhaps a little too interested in undressing to her hero suit. "Why am I surrounded by such weirdos today," Itsuki muttered to himself again. At this, the Rainbow Vomit launched an attack at Ms. Hitotsume and the two became entangled in their own fight immediately. However, the gray-haired man wasn't joining that fight, and directed his attention to the students. "While they're busy, why don't you guys see how you go up against a real thug?" He said, throwing up one arm in front of him, in a defensive pose. "I'll let you even get the first hit on me? How's about it?"  Itsuki folded his arms behind his head. This one seemed a little too obvious; it happened all the time in the fighting shows. Tough challenger taunts main character to hit first, then does something to turn it around completely, either some kind of counter or maybe some freaky power. As much as Itsuki would like to let the others do all the work for him, he figured that if it was Herc to take this chance and this guy had that sort of trick up his sleeve, then it could only end badly. "Welp, guess it can't be helped," Itsuki said, casually stepping up to the thug. "But maybe you should give the first hit instead, eh? I've seen tougher guys around the Game Centres, and they mostly just get mad when they lose. You might have to show me if you're as strong as you say."

Hiraku “You! The loud one!” Hiraku heard a semi-familiar voice call out as he made his way to the next Duel Team meeting, and he stopped in his tracks, turning around slowly. “Why have you not come to escort me to the meeting? It is improper to make one such as me go anywhere without company.” "Oh, it's the Chuuni," Hiraku said, eyeing the other girl that had run up beside her for only a brief moment, but it was nobody that he had recognized, so he returned his attention to Gabriela. "Why do you need an escort, aren't you supposed to be 'all powerful and unstoppable' or whatever?" Hiraku said in a slightly mocking tone. "Or are you just lost and don't want to admit it?" This upcoming meeting was something he had not been looking forward to. On top of one of the new recruits being loud and annoying, the other just happened to be you-know-who. If it were up to Hiraku, he would have them both kicked out of the team, but he wasn't in any sort of position to do anything like that. Also, if he tried to voice this sort of grievance, he would either be subject to Hitomu's apathy, or Jun giving him an earfull for his attitude. Again.