It had been one month since school had started. Aki hadn't made many friends. Well, she only made one, actually, and that would be Yuyuko, but she could never be sure, that's her first friend after all. Is there a guide on how to be sure you really are friends with someone and they know it? Doesn’t matter, what matters is that Aki doesn’t feel the urge to fight her, like, ever.
They have dorms, and everyone has, sadly, a roommate. Aki’s poor, unfortunate soul had to end up with one of the most boring people she has ever met. The only reason she hasn’t forgotten uhh- Zuruko is because they have to see each other every day, since, you know, roommates. Although our dear bomb girl has forgotten a few times, but come on! That’s literally the girls quirk!
Well, with that much time already studying at Taiyuu, they were bound to have a test. And that is the reason she found herself with a bunch of other kids standing before Wolfsboon waiting for instructions. He looked quite angry, it was funny.
After getting everyone’s attention, he starts to explain. “Today’s exercise is as cooperative as it is competitive. Your goal will be to either capture or incapacitate the lumin that your opposing team will be attempting to escort.”
As he gestures to the wooded area behind him, everyone looks, with different amounts of interests. “This will be your starting point. Your challenge will be to locate the escort team on one of the two potential paths through the woods, and either capture or subdue the lumin they will be escorting. I am certain you can already see one of them.”
Some students stared at the path, too high for their likings and too narrow to walk besides someone, no matter how close you are. “I hope none of you are afraid of heights.” Wolfsboon says, voice clearly showing how concerned he is. And that would be not even a little bit.
It was quite high, Aki wasn’t too fond of that, but it’s nothing she couldn’t just put aside. She’d be damned if that was a fear of hers, but it isn’t, and she does not feel bad for whoever is scared of that. Sucks to suck.
“The other path is somewhere within. If you injure your classmates unnecessarily, you will come to regret it…” Shit, that’s a plan already being crossed out, how boring. “...when you are disqualified and fail the exercise.” His expression made it very clear there would be more than just that.
Then, the teacher pulled out a list with every student’s names, some had a number next to them and some didn’t. Apparently the ones who didn’t were from the other team, and the people who had the same number were partners. Someone with the same number as Busujima Aki… aha! Rogers Salem. Who the fuck was that?
Her doubts were cleared when someone who she knew as Bug came to her so they could talk. That was her real name? Wow, no wonder they go by a nickname. “Hey! You’re my partner, right? Busujima Aki?”
“Yep! That’s me, the one and only, fucker!” The girl in question said with all the confidence she had. Wow, that’s a lot.
“All right, we need to plan how we’re going to do this.” They said. “We don’t know who we’re up against, so we can't know which path they’ll pick based on the people. Think we should split up?”
Aki was not planning on thinking this exercise, but her partner was, so she had to go along. “Sure, but when one of us finds them how would we warn the other, huh?”
“Well, your quirk makes bombs right? And they’re not destructive? Maybe you could throw one on my path if they were on yours and I could send some insects? You’ll know by the sudden increase in amount.” He suggested.
“That could work, but what if my bomb ends up too forward or behind you? It might not fucking reach you.” Aki left the part where her bombs were random out, that could be solved by making other bombs.
“You throw multiple and I’ll send some insects while on my way to warn you I saw them?” They suggested.
It was their turn, guess they were the second pair. “Sounds good, I’m taking the other path!” She ran without waiting for a response.
--------------------
Okay. She was at the top, it was as narrow as it looked, and she had to walk forward. Yep, she could do this. Aki took her steps, she walked like she would on land on a normal day. If she went too fast, she’d really be risking falling. Though maybe speeding up would be a good idea? Ugh! Why is she overthinking? Usually there’s no thinking at all!
There were no signs of people yet, or an increase in insects, Aki wonders if that’s good or bad. It’s bad, definitely, she wants to get this over as quickly as possible but they just don’t show up! Of course, it was a smart option going slow so they don’t get caught, but surely they’ll meet up anyway, so maybe they could speed it up.
Looking over at the sky, Aki thinks of the possibility that one of her enemies has wings or some form of flying quirk. There are some kids like that in this school, right? Although her thoughts are interrupted when she catches something brown quickly going from a tree to a bush. That’s… the Aguilero one, right?
Aki pretends she doesn’t see them and makes a bomb to throw at the other path. She is quite known for her aggressive and sometimes destructive nature, they wouldn’t suspect anything if she randomly threw a mini bomb, right? She looks down at it. Purple. Bug has to see the sticky goo, she’s not making another one right now. Looking at the other path, she sees the silhouette of her partner, huh, spotting each other isn’t as hard as they thought. The purple bomb is thrown at the other path - hopefully- right in front of the silhouette, her throw proves to have been a success when she sees the little blur that is her partner stop, turn around and run to the start of their path, on their one to the one their enemies are at.
Aki looks to her front again, intensely looking at the bushes. Okay, maybe there’s a chance that’ll give her away, but she does need to win this. Still walking, she notices a feather amongst the leaves. Aha! Bird kid! Another bomb is made. Red, flowers, it’s thrown to the side where they can’t see ground just as Bug’s insects get to Aki as a warning that her partner caught the signal. Another bomb is made, blues, cotton candy. Maybe that can trap them? She throws the bomb at the bush where the feather is located and hears a startled yelp. He wasn’t paying attention? Idiot.
“Oh. Oh god that will take a while to clean.” As she gets closer she sees Aguilero trying to move, it’s mildly effective in separating a bit some parts of the cotton candy, but while they’re at it they seems to get some form of vine undone form around their chest and she hears another voice calling for a Lumin, as she looks towards it’s direction, she sees someone with black skin, horns and pink, blue and yellow fire coming out of them. Nerve- Nerva Rekka, yeah. C’mon, it’s been one month they’re here, shouldn’t she know? But to be fair she couldn’t name a single person from her old school.
Luckily, behind the horned figure, there was a shadow approaching with what seemed to be a bunch of insects. Aguilero was almost getting up when Aki noticed and pinned them to the ground. “Do NOT try to steal this victory away from me. No matter how hard you try, we’ll win.” And just as she said that, the kids grew a brain and hit his head with hers. She threw her whole upper body back in pain - “Fuck.” - As she got up and took a few steps back, almost falling off the path, if it wasn’t for Bug, who was finally there, and who caught her.
The Lumin was right beside Nerva, who looked ready to pick up the plant pup and sprint past them, while Aguliro was slowly standing up in the bush they were caught in. Aki made another bomb. Purple… perfect. As Rekka was about to move, a purple bomb was thrown at their feet, causing some sort of sticky goo to seal them in place. With that, Aguilero, already up, took the dog and started hopping with the added wings to help, though in that stated, he definitely couldn’t fly. Holding the Lumin seemed like quite the hardship in those conditions, and it was proven to be when the bird student dropped the animal, that fell onto the path a little ahead of Aki. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Nerva occupied trying to shake insects off that Bug was trying to make crawl over them.
As Aguilero turned back to grab the pup again, Aki ran forward and pushed it aside, causing the poor plant animal to fall off the narrow, high path. The villain team could win by either capturing the dog or injuring it to the point where it would be considered dead so… that means… they won! They won by injuring it to death!
Aki’s first test, it could’ve been better, but she wasn’t going to complain about the results.
