“Ugh, I’m tired of this.” Himiko groaned, falling back and staring up at the ceiling. “They’ve got to have some kind of basic equipment they give people, right? I’ll just take whatever they give.”

“I’m kind of surprised. I figured this would be the one part of the entrance process you liked.”

“I did like helping with yours.” She admitted, another sigh slipping out. “But come on, we both know I don’t really vibe with this hero stuff. Its not like my quirk or anything I really know how to do gives off heroism either. The whole thing just doesn’t fit me.”

A hum came from him. Then, a few moments later, his bed shifted, Himiko turning a bit to find Katsu seating at the edge of it beside her.

“You could always lean into that.” He said, reaching over her and taking the book she’d been drawing in and the pencil with it, getting to work himself. “I have no idea why you’re so good at it but these days its like you can just pop up out of nowhere.” She would’ve thought he was just trying to make her feel better, especially since she could never catch him off guard when they were practicing together but she knew better.

Hitting Katsu with a surprise attack meant going completely unnoticed right up until the moment of contact otherwise those crazy reflexes of his was always going to get him out the way.

“Combine that with your quirk and you could be one of the best heroes for any kind of infiltration or information gathering work.” He added while drawing. A solid minute later and he turned the book around. “Special ops hero, Himiko doesn’t sound too bad, does it?”

“Pfft.” She couldn’t help the building laugh as she looked his quick, childishly cute drawing over. Katsu was good at a lot of things, especially the stuff he focused on, but drawing was not one of them, the dark black hooded costume he sketched up, far from giving the stealthy serious vibe he thought it did. That oversized knife he drew alongside it just made it seem like more of joke. “I’d have to be special to wear something that looks like that, alright.”

“Shut up.” He tapped the book on her forehead before pulling it back. “That’s just one idea.”

“After being attacked by a villain, or being in any sort of accident, what do you think ends up being the most frequent cause of death for people in those situations?” He asked, another drawing started on the next page.

“Blood loss?” She guessed, already seeing where he was going.

“Infection would be the right answer. Actually, if we’re getting specific, the body’s overreaction to an infection. It-“

“Nerd.”

He chuckled, obviously going out of his way to bring that up just to mess with her. “Blood loss is a big one though. I’m sure you already know where I’m going from there.” After a bit more drawing, colors included this time, he finally turned the book back to her. It was even more childish than the last one, the costume he had in mind lacking any dark colors or a hood, favoring the white and red of typical emergency services and the knife from before replaced with syringes and what she thought were supposed to be blood bags.

“Seconds could be the difference between someone surviving an injury or succumbing to it. With Himiko the medic around, that time is never wasted.”

That was the obvious heroic use of her quirk. But giving her blood to strangers or using theirs for her quirk? It just didn’t sound right to her.

She hadn’t applied to U.A for any other reason than Katsu but maybe she wasn’t built for it. She couldn’t see herself doing much of the heroic stuff expected.

“You shouldn’t worry too much about whether or not this stuff suits you yet. You’ll have a few years to find something better.” He said, closing the book and leaning back alongside her, the both of them face to face. She had a feeling he wasn’t talking about costumes. “Even if you don’t think you’re much of a hero, you’re already my hero. Remember that.”

It really did feel like he knew exactly what was going through her mind sometimes. She’d never felt like that with anyone else.

XOXO

Himiko adjusted her mask, her costume taking parts from both of the simple drawings Katsu had done, favoring the more medical focused one.

She still wasn’t feeling the heroic stuff but every last person in their class was doing their best. Even Tsu had been all excited and proud to win her matchup. On top of all that, Katsu would be watching after finishing up his own quicker than anyone else.

Maybe she’d go for that MVP title? She had a bit of an idea about how.

“Umm…” A quiet voice reached her.

She turned, facing her partner who was standing beside the replica bomb they were supposed to protect. Maybe his quirk might be able to help with the plan.

“Koda, right?” The guy, on the taller side due to the pointed end of his rocky looking head, nodded, eye contact only making his nervous expression worse. His costume didn’t give away much, just a simple yellow and red suit with the symbol of parted teeth on his chest. If it weren’t for the shoes she might’ve thought he was in pajamas or something. “So, what’s your quirk?”

Rather than answer, Koda moved towards one of the rooms empty windows and quietly called out. Moments later a flock of birds landed on the sill, all looking up and making noises at him. And he quietly, voice so soft she couldn’t really make out what he was saying, spoke back.

“You can talk to animals?” She asked, Koda nodding again. “Can you order them around?” He hesitated but nodded again.

He must really be shy to be so adamant about not talking much.

“Can you get them to fight with us?” Birds weren’t going to be able to do much, but they could be a good distraction.

He spoke softly with the birds again before turning back to her. “Th-They don’t want to fight anyone that hasn’t done anything to them.” He said, voice raised just enough to actually be audible. If it was anything but silent in the room, she doubted she would’ve heard a word of it though.

“I thought you could order them around?”

His eyes dropped. “I…I don’t like forcing them to do things.” Wow. Giving up one of the most direct ways to use his quirk just to respect some animals. “…sorry.”

“Nah, you’re cool.” Himiko said, smiling. He hadn’t looked any less earnest about all this than all the other students, so it took guts she didn’t really expect from someone so shy to stick to their guns in the middle of a test. One All Might was looking over too. She could respect it. “How about having them fly around the building and making noise when they find the other team?”

After an exchange of hushed words and chirps, two of the little birds jumped on their respective shoulders while the rest took off flying out of the room, quick to spread out across the building, while Koda gave her a nod.

“Alright then. You stay here and protect the bomb.” Himiko said, stretched a bit as she followed after the rest of the flock. “I’ll try and take them down before they even get here.”

Waving to him, she took off in a sprint, making a beeline for the stairway, Katsu’s blood already fueling a partial transformation.

According to the floor plans, there was an electrical room on the first floor.

XOXO

“Eh, sorry about that.” Mina apologized, smiling as her partner, Aoyama, clenched at the newly made hole burned through his cape by her quirk as they entered the building, the preparation phase finally over. “I got a little excited there.”

And who could blame her? They were in a class being taught by All Might! The number one hero was watching them, so she was going to be showing off her quirk as much as possible even if it technically wasn’t necessary right now. How cool would it be if she could say she got advice from him about her quirk and heroing?

Aoyama, the blonde a bit strange from what little she saw of him so far, threw up a stiff smile, the thing far too strained to be real.

Not a good way to start off things off.

“I’m sure they’ll fix that right up when we’re done.” Mina assured him. “Besides you still look so unique. Your costume really stands out compared to everyone else’s.” Not exactly in the best way, the whole armored knight aesthetic not meshing all that well that oversized set of winged shaped lens over his eyes. It came off as kind of gaudy, too much of it fighting for attention.

“Of course.” He said, eyes closing and smile growing as he let his cloak fall aside. “No one else dresses with the same panache.”

Weird thing to say, but, just like she hoped, he wasn’t bothered by her mistake anymore, admiring himself. At least the style of the costume matched his personality?

“You ready to get this search on?” She asked, walking ahead. The halls of the building were dead quiet. Her acid and that beam he shot didn’t give them any way to track people down, which meant they were going to have to kick themselves into gear and search this place floor by floor, until they found a member of the villain team or the bomb.

The silence of the halls wasn’t broken by Aoyama but a chirp?

A small white feathered bird landed on the ground across from them.

Did it get in through one of the windows? She wondered, taking a slow step towards it. The cute little bird tilted its head, then chirped again.

And chirped.

And chirped.

Each one louder than the last, more chirps started coming in from different parts of the building, a few more birds flying by. The lone one joined the flock, the group flying at them only to spread out, taking up scattered spots at their feet as they got louder.

What was-

Mina blinked, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness, the only bit of light pouring into the building coming from distant windows.

Okay, things just leaped from strange to suspicious. No way the still chirping birds were acting normal. And what were the chances of the lights suddenly going out after all that noise being a coincidence?

“Sorry birdies.” Mina apologized while bringing her hands together in front of her and focusing. Swiping one forward, she let loose globs of very weak acid. It wouldn’t do anything but sting a little if it hit them, the darkness a bit of a problem. Fortunately, that was enough, the chirping rising for a moment before the flock took off, leaving the two of them in darkness.

“That was weird, right?” Mina said, trying to peer harder through the darkness ahead where the birds took off to. “That had to be one of their quirks. The floor plans said something about an electrical room too. I think we should go there.”

No answer.

“Hey, Aoyama, are you-“ Further than she expected and forced to the ground, Aoyama was pinned down by a knee, the girl over him quietly unfurling some of the capture tape they’d all been given. “Hey, get off of him!” She shouted, rushing over, more of that weak acid prepared and thrown out.

The girl kicked off of him, rolling aside and tossing something Mina couldn’t make out in the darkness.

Firing more of her acid at whatever it was, the thing she stopped turned out to be only one of whatever had been tossed out, the other hitting the ceiling above them, shattering and scattered something cold and wet around, some of it splashing her shoulder. With Aoyama getting up, that attacker took off running down the hall.

Right up until her darkened figure was lost among the shadows, Mina didn’t hear a single step.

“Hey, are you alright?” Mina asked.

“Yes. Merci.” He said, looking just as frazzled as she felt, constantly looking between the different door lined hallways.

“I thought that Toga girl’s quirk made her stronger or something.” Wiping off whatever had been scattered, grimacing when she realized it was blood, Mina grabbed Aoyama’s shoulder, pulling him closer. “Alright, I’m pretty sure that electrical room is somewhere on this floor. We move back to back and-“

“There.” Jutting out and aiming his stomach, Aoyama lit up the dark hall ahead with his sparkling blue laser.

The dark hood of her costume pulled fully up, little more than a few strands of her dark hair peaking out from under, Toga stood in front of one of the building’s stairways, leaning out of the way of the laser.  Her narrowed eyes, the lower half of her face covered by a mask, was focused right on them.

The moment Aoyama tried to move the laser, she ducked, taking off into the darkness to the right instead of heading up the stairs.

She was staying somewhere on this dark floor with them.

Aoyama stopped firing, hunching over and breathing harder, a hand placed near his stomach. He wasn’t about to hit her with that thing before throwing up or something; he’d looked pretty sick after Aizawa’s test too.

“Come on, you got this.” Mina encouraged, readying herself. “Just use your quirk to light things up whenever we think we see her. I’ll use my acid to keep her back.” He nodded, took a moment to steady himself, before they started moving back to back like she originally planned.

The plan was the same; head to the electrical room, and, if she was right about what was going on, get the building’s power back on.

But now the darkness her eyes had adjusted to didn’t look so harmless. As they passed empty rooms and turned corners, Mina could’ve sworn she saw something moving at the corner of her eyes only for a quick shine from Aoyama’s quirk to reveal nothing. Other times they’d heard something from behind, metal clattering together or what was definitely a footstep only to, again, see absolutely nothing.

They were supposed to be playing the roles of heroes not the victims of some horror movie!

Luckily, all that noise never came with another attack, the both of them stopping outside one of the few rooms with a door, Mina pushing it open. Through the darkness she picked out different machines.

A switch was against the wall at the center of all of it.

“Finally!” Mina exclaimed rushing forward. She grasped the cold thing and pulled, a flood of light forcing her to wince before she spun around. “We- Aoyama!?”

The doorway he should’ve been standing in was empty, the door shutting with a bang. She dashed for it, pushing it open.

Left. Right. She didn’t see a trace of him anywhere.

“Aoyama!” She yelled rushing down the hall, peeks taken into the still empty rooms they’d already passed.

As she blinked darkness fell over the building again, Mina stopping in place.

She was in the dark. Alone this time.

Instead of letting that stop her, she took off in a sprint back towards the electrical room. She had enough this sneaking around. She was going to find that girl and-

Pain that took away her breath and left her wheezing hit her throat as the world twisted, her back hitting the ground hard. Mina blinked away her blurry vision as she coughed and tried to push herself up.

A set of sharp crimson eyes staring down at her from beneath her hood, Toga stood over her, capture tape already unfurled.

XOXO

“The hero team has been captured. Team F are the winners!” All Might declared after a moment of silence passed in the observation room. He cleared his throat, just as taken aback as everyone else. “That was quite the showing.”

“Himiko’s scary.” Tsu said.

“Yeah, ending with a clothesline was a little much.” I said, nodding along.

“Not what I meant, ribbit.” Tsu said, giving me an even blanker stare than usual.

I couldn’t help a small chuckle. Himiko had taken that stealth stuff and ran off with it. I knew she had a sharp sense of smell when it came to blood, especially mine, no bloodhound but the scent of it enough to give her a constant heads up on the two's general distance from her after she splashed their clothes with it.

How she got around so quickly without making a sound and that uncanny ability to haunt someone’s peripheral vision without completely giving herself away, were both lost on me. I got the concepts sure, the knowledge in my head ensuring that, but I just couldn’t pull all that off the way she did.

An odd thing to be a prodigy at but odd was always the name of the game when it came to her.

“Everyone in this class is scary when you think about what we can do.” I decided. Himiko wasn’t unique in that respect.

“True.” Tsu, along with a few others, glanced at Bakugo. After his match and how hard he’d been willing to beat on Midoriya, he was rightfully the focus of their attention, but I was thinking more about someone else.

“What’s stopping Yaoyorozu from creating and dropping a giant bomb on all of us?”

“That’s illegal.” Yaoyorozu said from my other side, recoiling from the very suggestion. “I wouldn’t use my quirk in a way that breaks any laws or hurts people without cause.” So, the only thing stopping her was the fact that she was a law abiding citizen.

Obviously not, but my point stood. She’d be a god damn scary villain.

“You’re weird, Katsu.” Tsu decided.

“I think there may be truth to that if that was what was on his mind.” Yaoyorozu agreed.

Why am I suddenly being double teamed for pointing out the facts?

XOXO

(A/N: Battle Trials got more in dept than initially planned but we're done with them. Katsu and Toga shall finally be free from the prison of school long enough to do some experimenting and rolls.

U.A. first few days really are packed with significant stuff.

That aside, not going to lie, I almost didn't post today. Not because I didn't write what I intended but because I straight up didn't want to spend a second editing a damn thing. But I also refused to post anything I haven't edited at least twice. Truly editing is the bane of my existence. Powered through and got it done though.

To any of my fellow creators, I think one of the hardest part of doing creative stuff is just accepting that you got to do stuff you don't want to to get to what you do sometimes even when you aren't feeling perfectly up to the task. Got to keep moving forward to make that sweet sweet progress towards what you want.)