VCR_CAT

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.

Tora Mori

As the duel was wrapped up, it looked like Leiko had managed to get out of the situation uninjured, and for that Tora breathed a sigh of relief. The others surrounded her, both in support and also in an effort to keep Zirco from escalating the situation any further, but this only helped to make Tora feel guilty for not feeling comfortable doing the same. She just met these people a couple hours prior; of course she would feel hesitant to join in on something like that. That's perfectly normal and acceptable, right? Things seemed to cool down regardless, and everyone was expressing their support to Leiko, who seemed uncertain of her ability to summon a Duel Dragon at all. But she just did an accel synchro summon; if there was anyone here who could summon a Duel Dragon, it had to be her. Right?

Tora pinched the bridge of her nose. It was only morning and already it felt like it had been a long day. Just as the discussion turned towards the breakfast that was soon to be upon them, Tora had already left the garage to make her way to the meeting room.

Thankfully, even in the roughest of times food had been a good distraction from her thoughts. Tora's eyes lit up as she slowly scanned the lengthy buffets filled with all sorts of different breakfast foods (and chicken noodle soup).

"Go ahead, eat whatever you may like!" The white haired magus called out. "But please, try not to talk shop during of breakfast. There will be plenty of time afterwards for Signer things. Please, just enjoy your food and get to know each other."

Even before he had finished talking, Tora had already sat down with a sheer mountain of waffles drenched in syrup, digging in and stuffing her mouth and making no sound beyond a very satisfied hum. If there was anything that would make this whole ordeal worth it, Tora thought in that moment, it had to be that.

Rosha

Rosha's initial attack was a success, cutting through one of the bandits in a matter of seconds with a hail of supersonic metal. The other, however, retreated near one of Rosha's allies, forcing her to call off her attack early. In a heartbeat, Rosha had thumbed the switch for the plasma launcher and took steady aim, waiting for an opening as the bandit danced around space, Rosha's finger hovering over the trigger.

"C'mon, stay still for just a second," Rosha grumbled as she tracked the target. Thankfully, the mech that the bandit was harassing managed to turn things around and riddled the criminal with a respectable amount of bullets. Rosha couldn't help but feel disappointment in not being the one to take them out, but felt relief that nobody was damaged more because of it.

Rosha diverted her attention to the rest of the fight, looking for more targets. However, it seemed that she was late enough to the game, as the rest of the bandits had either been scrapped or were fleeing. In fact, it wasn't long until the battle was over entirely, and even while a familiar voice announced their victory Rosha was still grumbling disappointment. However soon they could reach landfall and actually do things wasn't soon enough. Begrudgingly, Rosha steered her mech back towards the rear of the ship and initiated the docking sequence with a practiced familiarity. As soon as she could, she popped the machine's cockpit open and leaped out of the tall machine, bounding down its limbs as if she didn't weigh anything at all.

Aria

“Yeah, I’m a little under the weather and I don’t know my way around. Aria gave me a really good tour when I first got here so I thought she might know,” Masaru said. “well, I actually meant to message to Mauvache but I still don’t know how this magic mail thing works. Are you any good at it Tegur?”

"Not in the slightest. Every time I try I just end up breaking the screen, gwaaaahahahaha!" Tegur replied with a hearty laugh

Masaru threw his head back and laughed as well. “Doesn’t surprise me at all. You never were any good at magic!” his smile faded and bit the inside of his cheek. “Still… Wait!” Masaru lit back up and snapped his fingers. “You’re good with this stuff, right Aria? Do you know how I would get this little baby slime in my watch-thing out? I don’t think Miss Mauvache is feeding it the right diet.” He looked genuinely worried. “He’s not growing at the rate he should so I’m kinda worried.”

"Okay, what the heck do you mean by 'baby slime', lemme see that!" Aria grabbed Masaru's watch-arm and yanked the screen a little closer to inspect. There she saw what was simply a digital assistant; not a real slime by any means. "Oh, that? That's just a digi--" Aria stopped herself and gave Masaru has arm back, thinking for a moment. He's already thought it was real, had trouble sending messages, and thinks technology is all magic. Just explaining what it was wouldn't do any good. Gotta think outside the box here. "I got it!" Aria said, planting her fist in her hand. "See, the slime there isn't really real, so it doesn't need to eat. You know pictures and paintings? That's kinda like how the watches work; they're just all moving pictures that we can do things with. So, the little slime there won't grow, but he doesn't need to eat either." Aria folded her arms proudly, thinking that she had flawlessly explained how the watches work despite the extremely simplistic nature of her explanation. Well, at the least Masaru won't worry about it being fed. "Anyways, I have the map to the hospital right here. I can give you tips on how to use the watch on the way if you want. But, we should get going so you don't have to stand around being sick all the time."

This time it was Aria dragging Masaru towards the door. "C'mon, he's not goin' anywhere, you can catch up later. Thanks for the help, Tegur! We'll see you later!"

Itsuki

"You're all so lame!"  Hitotsume said, wiping a tear from her eye. 

"Fair," Itsuki said with a shrug as he managed to somehow slouch in his chair more.

"Although, I was pretty lame when I first started the business." She started walking up to the front desk, before stopping at Kess.  Her eyes narrowed as looked at the girl. "You.  You fail. You lack common respect, and you clearly have a rage in you that I couldn't control. A shame really. You can stay for the rest of the day, but I don't want to see you back here tomorrow. You wouldn't know what a Hero was if they came up and smacked you upside the head. Change your attitude, and try again next year."

"Ha," Itsuki snorted, chuckling to himself. Out of everyone here, Kess's was the most aggressive and outlandish, though Itsuki had no idea specifically why she was expelled. Either way, it still somehow felt justified.

"Now then class~, open your math books to page 1~!  Time for some Algebra~!"

The class collectively groaned, with Itsuki being one of the loudest as he pushed himself into a somewhat more upright sitting position. The rest of the day had continued to be just that: hard learning with dry and boring school subjects. Itsuki felt more and more of his soul leave his body as these lessons continued; these were the reason that he would skip class so often prior to U.A. Finally, the day came to an end and they were prompted to get a form signed by their parents or guardians for field training that was to start soon. Finally, this was the sort of thing that Itsuki had come to a school like this for. None of this boring "school work", actually getting to use his quirk and cut loose.

As the class ended the other students started to mill about and socialize. The moment the teacher had stopped paying attention to them Itsuki had already whipped his phone out and was immediately browsing social media. Without paying attention to anything else, he plucked his backpack from beside his desk and slung it over his shoulder, then strolled to the class door. "Later," he said with a half-hearted wave of his hand.

On the morning that the signature was required, Itsuki had come rushing down the stairs all ready for the day and skid to a halt at the bottom. His mother, dressed for work and as prim and proper as ever, was already washing her dishes from breakfast that morning. With his eyes glued to his phone, Itsuki smacked the form on the countertop.

"Hey ma, sign this," he said as he leaned against the counter.

"Don't talk to your mother that way! Isn't that school supposed to teach you some manners?!" She said, placing the dishes in the sink with a look of exasperation.

"It's only been a couple days, ma. Now sign this or I'm gonna be late."

"And what am I signing?"

Itsuki shrugged. "Dunno. Didn't read it."

"Jeeze, what am I going to do with you?! Hopefully that school teaches you some manners sooner than later." Itsuki's mom reached for a pen by the phone and signed the form, but not before reading it first. "Oh ho~! And looks like that might be sooner than later after all! Well then, I hope you have a good time at school, sweetie!"

Itsuki eyed his mom suspicious as he took the form and crumpled it into his pocket. "Anyways, I gotta go, later."

Itsuki made for the door and could hear his mom call out to him. "Wait! Have you eaten breakfast yet?!"

"Didn't catch that! Gonna be late! Byyeeee~!" Itsuki called back as he rushed out the door, determined to stop by the convenience store on the way.

One week later, class had started as it always did. Itsuki made his way to the back corner and kicked his feet up on his desk with his phone out. Lessons had gone so far so good; if the rest of the year was anything like this, he was going to breeze through this school in no time.

"Claaaass~!"  Hitotsume burst through the door with as much enthusiasm as ever.  "Before your introduction into real Hero work, we're going to do something real fun today! We're having Quirk Evaluations today!  Not everyone in the class knows the extent of each other's quirks are, and I only know the Quirk itself!  But I want to see you push it in today's exam!" Itsuki felt his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. Is this what his mom meant the other morning?

Before he knew it, the class was lead out of the classroom, changed into their gym attire, and stood before a trio of tests they would have to go through. The first was familiar-looking punching bag, like the kind that Itsuki would cheese with his quirk for a bunch of easy tickets.

"Here we have the Strike Indicator! We'll measure your striking power here!" The next was like a carnival game of sorts, with targets resting on comical portrayals of villains.  "This is the Target Practice! Only using your Quirk, you'll have to try and hit all of the moving targets!  If you can't that's okay!  Just try whatever you feel will do the trick!"  And the next she showed was the biggest of them all: a large obstacle course. "So who's up first?"  

"I'll set the bar for you all!" The Gaijin stepped up to the plate first and tackled each challenge in a rather straight-forward manner. She clambered over the obstacle course like any other athletic person, but did so more impressively than any normal person. Next she tackled the punching bag and managed to land a solid hit, and finally was the target practice where she actually used her quirk, shooting a wave of flames and managing to hit all of the close ones. "Guess I gotta give you all some chance to catch up."

Itsuki nodded. He knew how to tackle the punching bag, and he already knew he was going to do the target practice, but he wasn't particularly athletic. There was no way he was going to be able to do the obstacle course normally, so he would need to think of something.

"Apologies, Ms. Hitotsume. But I wanted to show the others what my Quirk is...and I had to remove the shirt in order for them to see it first hand." Yuudai was next, undressing in front of the class before tackling the challenges.

"Exhibitionist!" Itsuki called out with a smirk before being reprimanded by the teacher. Still, Yuudai tackled the obstacle course, the punching bag, and the shooting range, managing solid scores on each. Itsuki finally got an idea and planted his fist in his hand. He knew how he was going to do this.

"Alright, I guess I'll go next," Itsuki said and stepped up to the punching bag first. Again, he wasn't strong, but there was a way he was always able to get the high-score on these while nobody was looking. Itsuki took a deep breath and let his arms swing a few times before throwing a very unimpressive punch on the bag. The bag swung with a below-average speed...

...but rebounded back before it could hit the sensor. Then, Itsuki swung another punch at the right moment, and the same thing happened. To anyone that looked closely, they would see a bright green barrier floating just behind the punching bag, and with each well-timed punch the bag would rebound back and steadily get faster and faster each time he hit it. Eventually, the speed came too much and Itsuki realized that if he kept trying and missed the timing then the bag would only slow down, so he let the barrier vanish after one more hit and the bag hit its sensor. The score displayed was very impressive; far too impressive than anyone without an enhancement quirk, let alone without much in the muscle department in the first place.

"Hoo-wee! Wouldya look at that! Looks like all that training payed off after all!" Itsuki said, doing a mock-flex as he laughed, moving to the target practice. He took one look at the range, checked his pockets for anything loose, then shrugged and just moved on to the next station.

Next was the obstacle course: the one he was most worried about. Taking a few deep breaths, he ran towards the first ramp and got as high as he could before he started to sink, generating a sickly yellow/green barrier to stop himself from sliding down and losing progress. It was slow, but he managed to get to the top of the ramp eventually, but he was already out of breath. He didn't anticipate that first step being as hard as it was, and his plan for the rest of the course was going to be hard enough as it was.

The ramp he stood on was one of the highest points of the obstacle course, which was crucial for this step in the plan. Taking a jogging start, Itsuki leaped off the platform and let himself fall a short distance before generating another barrier. Bouncing off, he moved forward generating barrier after barrier, bypassing the actual obstacle course itself as he essentially stepped above it through the air. The colour of the barriers changed each time, however, changing from a green-yellow, to a bright yellow, then dulling to a gray. Sweat trickled down his forehead as Itsuki struggled to generate more barriers, but he tried to remind himself that he was getting there and he was going to make it.

However, he wasn't. The last few barriers he made starting darkening and turning a smokey black, and just as he was getting close to the last platform the latest barrier he generated shattered into a cloud of brilliant particles and he plummeted to the ground below.

"Shit!" Itsuki cried out as he landed into a full belly-flop on the hard ground with a cloud of dust. He groaned and strained to hold up a weak thumbs-up from his lying position, but pushing himself to his feet was a hard task as he felt his ribs sting. Hopefully nothing was injured, but it sure felt like it. With the last challenge complete, Itsuki limped back to the class with his arm wrapped around his stomach, hoping that nobody was paying too close attention to that last part and would focus mainly on the punching bag.

Tora Mori

GIl rubbed his head with a wrench, thinking. "Well, we have a simulator, but it has... some kinks to work out. Blues said he was coming over tonight to get it fixed up."

Tora said nothing and furrowed her brow. She could hear her brother now, telling her about how they don't need any special tools or simulations to learn how to be good players. "Heck, you don't even need other players! You just need to spend time with the cards, learn what they do, how they work together, and most important get a feel for their heart!"

"Easy for you to say," Tora grumbled to herself. She never got how that worked. Any time she would spend with the cards she always felt like she was getting more and more confused. It wasn't just that the text and effects were long and convoluted-- even when she understood clearly what a card did, she had a hard time figuring out how it worked with the other cards. Hiroto always said that "the cards would tell him what to do", but that never made sense to her. Even when some of the other Signers here talked about "duel spirits", Tora never saw anything. How could a card talk?!

"Itching to duel, huh?" Raijin said, stepping back a bit to stand next to Tora. "Can't blame ya, their duel's even got me motivated."

"I-I just could use a bit of practice, that's all," Tora said sheepishly as she felt herself shrink at the prospect of attention being paid to her.

“Alright, Leiko, you showed me your best. It’s time for me to return the favor!” The duel was still going on in full swing, however. Even though it seemed like Leiko had the duel completely in the bag, Zirco wasn't giving up and still looked like he was absolutely confident he was going to win. What was with these people?!

“Hot Red Archfiend Dragon!”

"Already?!" Tora blurted out, then reflexively covered her mouth as she said so. Zirco had mounted a complete comeback and managed to work a combo out that not only took out Leiko's monster but almost stole the duel from her entirely. Tora could only feel herself burning with more frustration; there was no way she could come up with a move like that. Reflexively and without thinking she reached into the deck-box hooked onto her belt and took out a single card, holding it down by her side as her eyes remained fixed on the duel.

Leiko's D-Wheel had come to a stop, and while they couldn't see much from how far away the camera was, Tora could tell that not everything was okay with Zirco's opponent. "C'mon," Tora said quietly. "C'mon get going! You can do this!"

"DISQUALIFY."

But she didn't. Before anyone knew it, the duel was over. Leiko remained draped over her D-Wheel, clutching her arm tightly. The garage buzzed with chatter from all the spectators wondering what happened and how Zirco would take it. Tora realized that she was holding something and, wondering what it was, held the card she had taken from her deck to look at it.

There, in her hand, was the Duel Dragon she had managed to manifest in the experiments: Mach Accel Dragon. How did it get there?! And somehow, as Tora looked at the card, she couldn't help but feel that the card was staring back at her, with a sort of expecting determination. With a sigh, she replaced the card back into her deck-box and folded her arms.

"I hope she's okay," Tora said to nobody in particular.

Rosha

"Sir Beef Wellington eh?" Kelsey said as Rosha smiled proudly. "Only players can really use that guy effectively. Unfortunately for you I know just how to take him down."

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!"

The match had started, but it wasn't long until it wasn't going the way that Rosha had wanted. As her character's health bar steadily decreased, she would begin to growl louder and louder, with the intensity of her button mashing growing. Soon enough, the match was over and Kelsey had already won the first round.

"Need a stool?" Kelsey teased. "Hey it's best two outta three maybe you can make a comeback."

"Then you better relish that victory 'CAUSE IT'S ALL YOU'RE GONNA GET!" Rosha growled as the next round was about to begin.

It was, however, not all that she was going to get. The second round was over as soon as it had started, and Rosha's character lay defeated at the hands of a flawless victory. Kelsey stood there triumphantly, while Rosha gripped the joystick so tightly the plastic began to crack. Rosha was just about to demand a rematch when the loudspeakers blared an alert. While the turbulence had finally ended, they were now under attack. In a flash, Kelsey was gone from the rec room.

"Hey! Get back he--!" Rosha started to yell at her, but was immediately knocked to the floor as a blast shook the ship again. Then the alarms continued to blare; an appropriate volume for everyone else, but for Rosha they were far, far too loud. She crouched there, huddled on the ground in a fetal-position with her hands pinning her large ears down against her head. Slowly, she pushed herself to her feet and made an effort to get to the hangar without using her hands as best as she could.

The windows that lined the hallways normally displayed empty space now displayed the battle taking place above them in all its glory. Frustrated that she couldn't be there first, Rosha rushed down the halls with all the high-pitched squealing that the claws on her feet made when they scratched against the metal floor. It took some time, and some effort to key buttons for doors using her elbows, but she had managed to get to the hangar and ran towards her mech.

As the battle raged on, a bright red streak blazed into the middle of the battle and planted itself in the middle of the ship with a loud bang. There, standing on the hull and hefting the large weaponry mounted on its arms, was the heavy frame of the Mourning Star mech.

"I am sick of all these [Kreskan] loud noises," Rosha growled into the public channel, "and I am sick of being stuck in a cramped space ship..." The Mourning Star readied the massive machine gun on its left arm and aimed it right at three of the pirate units that were already engaged with other friendlies. "And I am SICK of [ZA-KRESKAN] SPACE!! NOW GO TO HELL!!"

The machine gun erupted into a fountain of brightly glowing metal, tearing through space and positively filling the area the three pirate mechs occupied in a hailstorm of supersonic slugs.

Aria

“I’ll be alright! Nothin’ a little cough serum and sleep won’t cure. I normally wouldn’t worry about a doctor if it wasn’t for,” Masaru gestured to the world around him, “all of this. Figured my body probably isn’t used to this world.”

Aria opened her mouth to say something, but it was Masaru to shout immediately. “TEGUR!” Aria blinked as Masaru grabbed her arm with a hand that, despite being gloved, felt a lot colder, heavier, and harder than any normal hand should, and dragged her over to the bar where he draped himself over the counter. “Long time, no see Tegur! Bet you didn’t know I was here, did ya? How’s Alfred? Anything good happening in the guild? Is Mena doing alright?”

Tegur let out a loud laugh. "Gwaaaar har har har, don't underestimate the information network of the local barman, laddie." He reached over the bar with one arm and grabbed Masaru, lifting him up and holding him in a powerful hug.

"Ye've gotten big haven't ye? Sorry to tell I can't say much aboot the others in the guild but Alfred, well, he's doing just fine he is. Haven't seen him in a bit but he's gotten pretty famous these days." He set Masaru down and noticed Aria. "Oh, welcome back lass, hope you took my advice to heart. Did ye come here with the kid then? Somethin going on here?"

"Well there are no fights today, so I have to wait to kick their asses anyways," Aria grumbled, then cleared her throat. "A-anyways, yeah. Masaru said he was feelin' sick so I said I could take him to the hospital and to meet me here. After that I dunno, probably figure it out from there."