VCR_CAT

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."

Do it, you coward you won't no balls

Itsuki Watanabe As expected, considering the colourful characters in the classroom and the manners they display during the exam and even after, much of the classroom's interactions devolved into chaos. Though, it wouldn't be fair to not recognize that much of this was due to a certain few members of their classroom who were... very obviously known for their aggressive behavior. Itsuki sighed as he somehow managed to slouch even further into his seat, closing his eyes for a quick pre-class nap. "Oh dear, oh dear~!" A voice could be heard ringing from the doorway. Itsuki groaned as he let his feet slide from the top of his desk. So much for that plan. "Let's settle down now everyone~! Let's all get in our seats~." The teacher introduced herself as Ms. Hitostume, who looked as nervous and inexperienced as she was tall and muscled. Had this been a normal middle school classroom, Itsuki would take this opportunity to mess with the teacher. But this wasn't normal middle-school, and he imagined that the he would get more than just a slap on the wrist. "Ah yes~! Your homework assignment from Sharp Shogun~!! Please come up in any order, and give me your answer~!!" She clapped her hands again, her eyes growing stern once more. "And make sure it's a good one~~!" "Shit," Itsuki muttered. Hopefully the benefit of being at the back of the classroom would kick in and he could get away with being one of the last to present, giving him enough time to come up with a bullshit answer. Of course, Yuuka was first to step up. Itsuki snorted something about being a "keener" under his breath. "I believe that being a hero is about not only being able to know what the right thing to do is, but acting on it the moment you realize what that is. At least, that's the base requirement of being a hero." That's it?! Itsuki thought. But that was just a job description! I could've said that! Dammit, I could've gone first! Of course, now he couldn't use that, knowing how obvious it would be that he just copied Yuuka. The giant beetle man was next, who turned out to be another gaijin in the class. He was loud and obstructive, as many people in the classroom seemed to be. "I guess when it comes down to it, what being hero is to me is a responsibility to use my power to help others." Itsuki felt his jaw dropped. He just did it too! Dammit! I'm losing all my opportunities! I gotta think of something! "Hello, everyone. My name is Lesnar Claypool... or at least in America it is. I guess here it'd be... Claypool Lesnar?" Next up, sure enough, was another gaijin. At this point the "A" in "U.A." might as well stand for "America". "...being a hero, at least to me, is about the initiative. A hero stands out for their initiative to act for selfless reasons. In other words, they never hesitate to go out of their way to protect those who need it, regardless of who they are or who they're helping." This is the sort of answer Itsuki expected to come from Yuuka, and it even sounded like it came straight from a textbook. Itsuki was beginning to wonder if he had the wrong impression of Yuuka all along. "Pleased to meet all of you. I'm Himura Hibiki! To me, being a hero is like, doing whatever you can to make the world a better place. Stopping bad guys, helping good guys that need it, and giving to your community and stuff. I've looked up to heroes ever since I met one as a little girl, so I always thought they're supposed to be these amazing people you'd want to look up to. Even if it's just by doing something small, being a hero means you should strive to make the world more peaceful. That's what I think anyway." The next girl gave the sort of response Itsuki would expect to hear from a kindergartner explaining what it was that they wanted to grow up to be. Maybe Itsuki was fretting over the assignment too much? Maybe it was just that simple? Next up was the hot gaijin. "A hero does everything they can to protect those who can't protect themselves." She declared. "They fight past their own limits, work harder than anyone else, and never surrender in the face of evil. Being a hero isn't a choice or a goal. It's just what you are. Being a hero means putting the protection of innocents and the defeat of those who'd harm them before anything else. Being a hero means dedicating yourself to never letting evil win!" She took a deep breath. "And I'm going to be the best hero there ever was!" That one seemed pretty on-point for the kind of thing that girl would say. No surprises. Thankfully the big scary girl decided to go next. "Yo. My name's Yoshino Misu. Call me whatever you'd like. But don't go makin' any dumb ideas." Ideas like what, though?! Itsuki found himself more worried at the prospect of what would qualify as a "dumb idea" than how much the statement made sense. Being a hero, to me, means being someone that someone else looks up to... Quirk or Quirkless. I mean... you can't disappoint the people who put so much faith in you, right? Anyone who tells you differently ain't got enough guts. And if there's one thing heroes are about, it's guts." Simple. Again, what Itsuki would expect from someone like that. Though, she said it as if she was held at gunpoint the whole time. "Good morning. I'm Shiba Yuudai." Yuudai said. Who? "What it means to be a hero, to me...honestly that's one question I didn't have to think too hard on. To me, being a hero means to be someone's inspiration. It may sound weird, but think about it this way, the heroes you saw on TV when you were younger... you were aspiring to be just as cool... if not cooler than they were. The heroes spark a bit of a fire in everyone who sees them. That spark of inspiration slowly grows and sooner or later it'll erupt into an individual's life... and heck, it might just bring them to where we are now." Whoever this guy was, now he was just rambling. Get on with it, already! Honestly, the type of hero that can just inspire others to follow in their footsteps...that's something that I honestly think defines a hero to me." He gave a small nod and smile, before returning to his seat. "<I'm Diana Seigi!> Half-Japanese, half-American!" Oh, it was the girl that punched Itsuki in the exam. A hero is someone who stands for justice. Defending those who can't defend themselves. Protecting the world from danger... Finding and acting on the truth, above all, no matter if someone is blessed with a quirk or born powerless. That is what being a hero is. <That's true justice!"> "<Justice...>" Itsuki said quietly to himself with a short raise of his hand, chuckling to himself at the reference. Next, the boring-looking guy got up to the front of the classroom, stiff as a board and introduced himself. "So, I had to think deeply about this question, where I found the answer in my faith. I found two passages that showed me what it means for me to be a hero...” Itsuki groaned and let his head sink into his arms, refusing to listen beyond that. Lastly was Kess, who stood up in front of the class and gave a very long-winded and angry speech about inspiring fear into the hearts of her enemies. Itsuki raised his head from his arms just enough to mimic the yapping-mouth gesture he made with his hand. Finally, when she finished the room fell quiet, as he was one of the last, if not the last student to go up. "Shit!" Itsuki swore as he pushed himself to his feet and strode to the front of the class. He didn't have anything, he spent more time making fun of the other students to himself with his shitty commentary than thinking of an answer! "Yo, I'm Watanabe Itsuki, Yoroshi-kuuuu~~" Itsuki gave a half-hearted gesture with the barest attempt at his introduction. Small drops of cold-sweat ran down his face. What did that Yuuka girl say? Be honest? What the hell did it mean to be a hero anyways? Wasn't that the reason they were there, to learn that? Itsuki cursed to himself. "What does it mean to be a hero?" Itsuki laughed to himself nervously. To hell with it, he'll just have to say the first thing that comes to mind, but right now he felt like nothing more than a ritual "Sacrifice," Itsuki blurted out, and stood there frozen in place for a moment. No, no this was good, he could roll with this. "Like... okay so, whenever like, a fight broke out at the arcade or whatever. Sometimes out in the streets. There's always like, this one dude that just gotta step in and try and break it up. It almost never works, but if a guy was gettin' picked on then they usually get a chance to run away. Anyways, they'd often get the shit beat outta them." Itsuki laughed nervously again. There wasn't anything funny about that, though! "In the end, though, someone gets beat up anyways so I always figured 'shit, they didn't do anything'. But... maybe they did? Maybe for those dudes that ran away they're just glad to get away, and made that dude who got the shit beat outta him was willing to do it so the other guy could get away. Anyways, those guys always end up gettin' called heroes around my parts, so I figured that's what it meant. Sacrifice for others? I dunno." Itsuki stood up there for a few silent, awkward seconds. "Anyways that's all I got. See ya!" Itsuki marched back to his seat and sunk deep into it, thankful he was at the back of the class. No way he wasn't gettin' expelled for that half-assed attempt.

Rosha "I dunno, oh, hot, hot, hot, but it's pretty great isn't it? One of my favorite hobbies is watching her reactions." Rosha shook her head, with nothing to answer her question. "Humans are so weird," she muttered. "But enough of that." Kelsey said, dramatically gesturing towards the game. "It's game time! All or nothing! Life or death! The fight of a lifetime!" She paused. "Or something like that." Rosha's ears perked up. "Now you're talkin'! Let's make it a battle to remember!" Rosha laughed as the game booted to the character selection screen. Immediately she moved over and selected the largest and most intimidating character on the screen. When the character was selected and the whole portrait could be seen, Rosha couldn't help but laugh at his size and apparent strength. "Now look at that! There's no way you're gonna stand up to this! I'll crush you!" Which, of course, was unlikely. A good portion of Rosha's height was her ears, and while she could reach the controls for the arcade cabinet she was still quite low for the intended height of the cabinet. Not to mention that when she actually did play this game, most of the time she just mashed control inputs until she won. The idea of "combo-inputs" wasn't something that ever flew off with any interactive media on her planet, and she never even though to consider that this was how fighting games were meant to be played.

Tora Mori As the duel progressed, something happened with Leiko that changed her demeanor entirely. “Clear Mind!” The TV blinked out for a moment, and the staff scrambled to get the feed back online. When it was, Leiko performed a combo that netted her with a very strong-looking monster on her field, summoned on her opponent's turn no less. Tora's fist clenched. "Can the rest of you not do that?" Natsumi asked off-handedly. Raijin nodded. "Right? Have none of you seen a Synchro Summon before?" Tora shrank back a bit. She had seen synchro summons before, but always had trouble figuring out the combos to get the right combined levels on her field to perform the one that she wanted. Every time she tried, she either ended up with too much or fell too short, and sometimes when she even managed to get the right combination of levels she would still neglect to summon the right tuner on the field, or any tuner at all. Everyone else in the room seemed more than comfortable with the summoning mechanic, and Tora's faced continued to flush subtly as she felt more and more afraid that someone was going to ask her and then she would have to answer and-- "It's not the Synchro Summon that's amazing. I can do more than just Synchro, but to achieve Clear Mind... Ah, how wonderful!" Tora breathed a sigh of relief when Shannon spoke. Saved by the bell. The duel progressed and Tora watched with almost an eye of jealousy. Leiko made it sound like she was just as bad as Tora, and that at least made Tora not alone in her incompetency with duels. But now, she felt like the lowest on the totem pole more than ever. As much as she wanted to spend the rest of her day in the garage, she knew that there something more important that she needed to do. "Excuse me?" Tora asked the staff present, though nobody in particular. "Is there, like, any sort of... duel sim place in here? Where I can practice? I figured there would be, but I don't remember anything from the tour..."

Not gonna lie, I have concerns after watching the trailer. I'm happy this is getting made. It's been a long time since any Borderlands content, and I hope that the time they took has lead to a very polished and well-made game, but as for the concerns that the trailer did not alleviate: - Borderlands 1 and 2 are both incredibly repetitive and sloggy games, and while this gives them that coveted "Wow! Look at how much time you can sink into these games!" medals that so many people (for some reason) place above so much else, it also lead to them being games that were often quite mediocre for me. Not bad, but never great. I hope future press shows how much different 3 is going to be, because at the moment it doesn't look like much more than "more Borderlands 2". I'm not, frankly, quite interested in another large collection of fetch-quests and long walks across stark, empty wastelands with nothing but little wads of enemies here and there. I want Borderlands 3 to be an actually great experience, not an experience, like 1 or 2, that was really nothing more than "Well hey, it's a decent way to burn some time." - The writing. Sweet genius the writing. Let me put it this way: when Borderlands 1 and 2 set out with a serious mood to tell a serious story with proper characterization, it was GOOD. In fact, it surprised me on multiple turns and my best memories on both games is when they stopped trying to tell jokes and said "Okay, this is where shit goes down." 1 and 2 had some genuinely great moments when they did that, and even managed to evoke some feelings. But when the games try to be funny? Holy shit it's bad. Insufferably bad. "I'm turning off the dialogue" bad. Don't get me wrong, I like some good peepeepoopoo jokes now and then, but when the jokes are nothing more than "it funny because she fat" or "it funny because he incesty southerner", it's just... shallow, and actually not funny. No, I'm not saying "It's not funny because it's insulting". I don't care about that with humor. I'm saying it's not funny because it just isn't funny. Their comedic writing has been just some of the shittiest I've ever seen, and the trailer only leads me to believe they haven't learned a thing since 1 or 2. Well, okay. That's a lie. I did notice that they barely spent any time paying attention to Claptrap, and he didn't even dab or anything during the trailer. THAT impressed me. Hopefully he stays quiet during the whole game.

Rosha "This is a two player game for a reason," Kelsey said. "Who are you anyway? I'm Kelsey. This sweetheart here is Stella." "Kelsey, eh? Well my name's Rosh--" As Rosha spoke, debris began to strike the ship's hull at an increased rate, and the room shook violently with each hit. As the ship rocked, Rosha's grip on the pipe above the machine came loose and the small alien girl fell to the floor with a loud thud. "[Xa'shaya!!]" Rosha shouted, with universal translators neglecting to interpret the harsh expletive. "I hate being in this stupid space ship!! Why does anyone bother to not have solid ground under their feet?!" Growling, Rosha pushed herself into a sitting position on the floor, rubbing her shoulder where she had landed. "My name's Rosha Ta'Megn, strongest warrior from my tribe!" she lied. "And I would be happy to compete against with your silly human 'videos game'!" Rosha leapt to her feet and took the player two side of the arcade cabinet. She cast a glance in Stella's direction her face betrayed her confusion. "Also, why is the dark-haired one so flustered? I can hear her heartbeat a mile away! All you said was that she is like a sugary heart."

Itsuki Watanabe Despite his least efforts, Itsuki had still managed to be accepted into UA. Though, considering his written exam, there was no surprise to see that he got put into Class 1-B. Still, he had accomplished what he needed to do and walked to school proudly. Now all he needed to do was breeze through school, graduate, beat up a bad guy now and then and live the easy life. Itsuki strode into class later than most but still technically on-time. His uniform was on, more or less, but he wore the jacket with only the top two buttons on and the sleeves off, with the article pushed back like some sort of makeshift cape. It was still too warm to wear long sleeves anyways. Like a magnet, Itsuki was drawn to the back row of desks where he set down his bag, sat in the chair, and leaned back with his feet kicked up on top. For the most part, Itsuki didn't recognize any of his classmates. Out of the ones he did recognize, he saw the girl that had punched him in the head, the gaijin who yelled "just ice" or whatever, the hot gaijin, Ballory was her name, right? And then Yuuka who almost cost Itsuki his admission into the school, though that was partially his fault. Unfortunately, the other person in the class was also the tall, scary-looking girl. Either Itsuki had seen her on the streets beating someone up before, or he had seen someone who looked similar doing just that. Either way, her entire presence spoke of the kind of danger that he had grown used to avoiding. After a few moments, Itsuki was able to catch some bites of conversation and remembered the homework they were "assigned" just after the exam. "Shit, we were supposed to do something for today, weren't we," Itsuki said. "Whatever, I'll come up with somethin'."

Rosha Rosha's time aboard the Finback was soon going to come to an end, and she couldn't be more excited. So much of the way the ship was run infuriated her. For starters, the sleep schedule was a problem. Rosha was used to how people slept back home, which is to say, mostly during the day. While the Finback was pretty lax on how the students went about their day, Rosha had been reprimanded a few times for her boisterous "night-time activities". The Finback lacked a full track and its space for exercise was woefully limited. The only place where Rosha could really run around and cut loose were the ship's halls and spaces, but these were usually full of people during the day. So, to solve this problem, Rosha took to running around the halls at night. But this presented another problem: the metal flooring of the ship made terrible sounds when her claws scratched against it, and when she put on shoes instead Rosha found the banging made from her running to be just as loud. Once the noise complaints started rolling out, the ship's command was forced to find its source and, in turn, address Rosha's little noise issue. So, for the past few days, Rosha was forced to remain more still. The crew suggested she use the exercise room to burn off the excess energy, but lifting weights was never good enough. She needed to run, climb, and leap, and there was no room around to do it. This caused her to become quite antsy and irritable around the other students. To make matters worse, the ship made all kinds of terrible noises that none of the other students seemed to be able to hear; high-pitched whines and low thrums that echoed down the halls from the engine room that made sleeping difficult for Rosha whenever she wanted to. Thankfully, the crew was able to provide noise-blocking earplugs that made a world of a difference for her. On the penultimate day, Rosha had awoken from her second morning-nap within her bottom-bunk mess of blankets, peering out from a makeshift curtain she had hung from the top bunk with a spare blanket she had stolen from the laundry services to block out light. She made her way to the cafeteria, scarfed down a hasty lunch, grumbled about being on a space ship for the fifth time, and then made her way to the game room. The Hangar staff had already gotten after her about getting in the way of work when she was practicing acrobatics there, and the library was for quiet and boring people, so this left only one space left where she was officially allowed to be. A couple students were playing ping-pong while some were at the arcade cabinets already, much to Rosha's chagrin. Rosha walked over to a pipe that ran up the wall and scampered up to the high ceiling to climb along the ventilation that lined the roof. Eventually, she clambered over to the arcade cabinets and, by hooking her legs on a pipe, let herself hang upside-down just over the cabinet while one of the other students mashed on the buttons furiously. "Are you almost done?" Rosha nagged, gently swinging from side-to-side. "I wanna play! Hurry up!"

Aria It wasn't long until Aria received another reply from Masaru, one that forced her to pause and re-read a few times in order to get the gist of what it was that he was trying to say. She wondered if he remembered that their meals for that day were being covered by Mauvache or not, shrugged and sent a simple "Sure, see you there!" and resumed waiting for him to arrive. Sure enough, a large tadpole-looking slime with Masaru riding on top had entered through the door to the pub. "Honestly I don't know what I was expecting," Aria muttered to himself as Masaru approached, dismounting the slime. "Ok so, I haven't received a reply from Mauvache yet. I figured we could maybe search on the watch if there are local doctors or somethin' that we can use? I dunno, unless Tegur has any ideas, he's been here longer than either of us," Aria said, motioning to Tegur before realizing that it was maybe a bit rude to cut straight to business instead of first greeting Masaru. "Also hey, I hope you're not feeling too bad, I know how it can feel to suddenly get sick on your day off."

Itsuki Once Itsuki had managed to return to the entrance of the exam ground, he noticed that a majority of the students had already returned. On the one hand, he wondered if he could have placed higher had he actually tried to get back in a more immediate fashion, but on the other hand he wondered how much work that would actually be. As he joined the rest of the crowd, he was approached by Yuuka, who had apparently made it back with five medals herself. "and I'm glad to see that you made it back just fine as well, Watanabe," she said. "No problem, really. Congrats to you too," Itsuki said, lifting his right hand for a peace-sign and uttering a slight "ow" as he did so. Casually, he scanned the small collection of students that had made it through until he spotted an american girl that captured his attention. "Now, if you'll excuse me for one moment..." Itsuki walked over to Valerie and generated a barrier to his side that he leaned against as if it were a wall. "Hey, what's a good-lookin' gaijin like yourself doin' here? My name's Itsuki, what's your's?"

*rolls up sleeves* it's time for my final form https://chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/track/pizza-force (yes I know, Bandcamp link. This song isn't on Youtube.)

Tora Mori Tora was already well focused on her bike to notice that the rest of those in the garage had gathered to watch the duel. From the looks of things, it seemed like almost ever part had been replaced. Even if it ended up running much better, Tora only found herself getting more and more annoyed at this prospect. The Cross-Whip was a bike that her brother had built from scratch with used and recycled parts, inspired by Yusei's story of doing the same in order to win the Fortune Cup. They never had the money to afford the best of the best parts, and Yusei proved that you didn't need to in order to win. Yet, looking over the inner workings of this bike, Tora couldn't help but feel like the heart and soul of the bike had been stripped away. Tora raised her head from looking over her bike and spotted where everyone had gone to gather. She approached and stood behind the crowd, arms crossed as she watched the moves closely. She didn't recognize any of the cards, not that she ever really spent much time trying to get to know all of them, but still did her best to comprehend exactly what was going on. However, based on what everyone else was saying, it became very clear that the way both of them were playing, they weren't playing to their fullest. "What's going on? Don't either of them want to win?" Tora asked, as she watched the duel unfold.

Aria It wasn't long until Aria received a reply from Masaru. Opening the message and reading only a few lines and seeing the emojis, her head sunk into her hands. "Oh no, what have I done," she muttered before diving into the rest of the text. "Does he mean a tomodachi? Is that what's living in his watch?" Either way, she figured she could help. She started by tapping out a quick message to Mauvachi briefly explaining the situation and asking if there's a doctor they could visit. Then, she got to replying to Masaru. I sent a msg to Mauvachi asking if theres a doctor. I can go with u if u want, is there somwhere u wanna meet up? Mb hang out for the day? At the last second Aria panicked over that last line, worrying that maybe it was too forward, but in her hasty panic she accidentally hit the "SEND" button and loudly proclaimed "Shit!" in the tavern, once again burying her face in her hands.

Hiraku Tsukino "Will do! Sorry for wasting your time," the girl said. Hiraku shrugged as she turned around, and out of curiosity he looked towards what it was she was watching. Just to the side of the booth was a duel that was currently going on between Jun and none other than Yushiro. Hiraku narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized the moves made during the match. Jun played as Jun plays, although it seemed as though she started off taking it a little easy on him. Yushiro's moves were very amateur, as expected. He used a lot of cards to summon a single synchro, responding to Jun's field with simple attack strength and neglecting to even read the monsters that were used for the synchro summon. When Jun ended the duel handily in a single turn, Hiraku could only think of how deserved that loss was for Yushiro. With a display like that, there's no way he should be allowed on the tea-- “Welcome to the team," Jun said, shaking Hiraku's hand. Hiraku stood there, growling to himself with his arms crossed. With this luck, there was a good chance that Hitomu let the chuuni join the team as well. At this rate, their team was about to become the laughing stock at any event. Of course, with so many people around, now wasn't the time to draw a scene. But, either way, chances are that Hiraku would need to have a word with either captain, but regardless, he would probably need to prove that Yushiro wasn't good enough for the team through their exhibition match, and he intended to.

Itsuki Watanabe "Ah, maybe we should... Thank you. Though, I'm not sure if any of us have quirks that help us go through a falling building like that..." "Thank you again Watanabe. I hope to see you back at the entrance." "Yeah yeah, don't mention it," Itsuki said. "Just don't get crushed by rubble or whatever." Itsuki waved at them and continued on his way, nursing his wrists as he walked along. The pain had dulled, but it still hurt whenever he tried to move them. Even if the rest of the medals that he managed to find were easy to get, taking them back to the entrance was going to be a task in and of itself. As he continued down the city streets, he came across a group of students that only seemed to have a couple medals to their name, at least based on what he could see out in the open. In fact, one of them seemed to have their stash sticking precariously out of his back pocket, and when the students dashed off down the street two of their medals dropped to the pavement with a clatter, but they were too long gone to notice. At first Itsuki thought it would be another easy pick, but Yuuka's words range in his head and he hesitated. He started to call after the students to tell them, but there was really no sign of them. Was it a trap, or were they really just that dumb? Either way, if it was too late to help them get their medal back, then it would just be a waste anyways. Itsuki bent down to pick up the medal, cupping it between both his hands to keep from moving his wrists too much, while also keeping an eye out in case it was a trap. But it wasn't. "I guess they really were just dumb," Itsuki muttered as he slowly stowed away both medals and made his way back to the entrance.