『ARC TWO: CAREFUL STEPS』

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"What in the absolute hell?! What do you mean escape room?!" A boisterous voice exclaimed so high that Tanami and Akihiko cringed from the pain ringing in their ears. The person who voiced their thoughts was a girl who had cupped her hands around her mouth to project her voice. Her cerulean eyes shined with confusion and exasperation. Jumping up and shaking her fist at relatively nothing, her chocolate hair tied in a braid fluttered behind her. "You can't be serious!"

No static flowed out from the speaker. Just dead silence. They waited a few seconds before someone decided it was high time to break the silence.

"It's exactly as Sukabe-san, Kohei-san? Hmm, we'll confirm that later. It's exactly how our teacher explained. Did you flip a coin and land tails? Was the consequence that it went through one ear and out the other? Was it now? Oh, the anguish! I'm stuck with an imbecile of a classmate!" Junpei had placed a hand over his heart and gasped dramatically. "You poor soul! How must the heavens despise thee!"

"The heavens are about to welcome someone else if you say another word!" the girl retorted with her fists swinging behind her. She stepped toward Junpei, sending him a harsh glare. The boy smiled, almost challenging her to draw closer.

Before the brewing argument could escalate, Yoshimi's deadpan voice broke through the tense atmosphere. Not even tearing his gaze from the game he was playing on his phone, he started to speak. "As much as I would love to hear the two of you rattle on, we need to find a way out of here. Unless you want to spend your day like sitting ducks, I suggest we introduce ourselves and say our Quirks. We can move on from there."

"Fine, fine!" the cerulean-eyed girl muttered like it was a waste of time. "I'm Cho Mei. My Quirk is called Paper Jester. I can control any paper and do as I please. I can make it as strong as steel and as sharp as a diamond, which is like the sharpest material ever. That's all you need to know, and just so you know, you'll all be definitely relying on a Powerhouse like me!"

At the word diamond, the twins stared at her for a moment longer than necessary. Tanami's fingers twitched and a deep frown settled on Akihiko's face. Given the fact that they can actually make pure diamonds, it was insulting that she made such a statement. It sent disgusted shivers up their spines. The two made eye contact before Akihiko lightly jutted his chin in Mei's direction. Tanami nodded in affirmation.

"Actually," Tanami commented sharply. Raising a hand and shaking it awkwardly to get her classmates' attention, she took three steps forward from her position in between her brother and her friend. "Diamond is not the sharpest material. At least, crystal related. I believe it would be similar to paper as well."

Mei rolled her eyes in disgust before tucking a piece of chocolate hair behind her ear. She turned to face the female twin, looking at Tanami up and down before settling on the purple shards hanging from her head. Nonetheless, Mei crossed her arms over the navy blue blazer and in an attempt to salvage the little knowledge she knew, she responded with, "well, how do you know that? You probably don't know how strong a diamond is."

Tanami resisted the urge to scoff. Seriously, their hair should be proof enough. Instead, she bundled the fabric of her skirt in her hand and motioned for her brother to speak.

"We do in fact." Akihiko continued while raising a hand to point at his hair and Tanami's. He knew she noticed it. It was the first thing people saw as light bounced off of their hair like moths attracted to a lightbulb. The soft purple glow was spotted easily whether you wanted to see it or not. "Diamond may be the strongest, but sharpest? No. Despite being a five or six on the mohs scale, sharpening the edge of obsidian makes it three times sharper than diamond. A diamond may last longer since it is a ten, but it is not the sharpest crystal out there. There is a reason why obsidian was used as a material for medical scalpels."

As if to prove their point further, Tanami easily allowed a blackish brown glow alight her fingers. In a second, she held a small piece of obsidian with a sharpened side. Raising it to her head, she effortlessly sliced a shard of purple crystal off the back of her head with ease. The shard fell into her palm and she presented with a smirk. "I understand that my hair is made of amethyst, but amethyst is a seven on the mohs scale and obsidian cut through it with ease. However, it won't cut through diamond. Or I've never tried at least. Don't really have a need to anyway. But I can assure you that diamond is the strongest, not the sharpest."

Akihiko nodded, swiping the two crystals from his sister's hand. Inspecting the two shards momentarily, he shoved them in his pant's pocket. His sister narrowed her eyes but did not try to ask for them back. He shrugged in response.

"I'm Mochizuki Tanami and this is my twin brother Mochizuki Akihiko. Call us by our first names, it'll be weird and confusing if you call us by our last names. My Quirk is Sugar Crystallization. I can create any type of crystals depending on how much sugar is in my body. My brother's Quirk is Reflective Crystallization. He can turn glass and mirrors into crystal or control the ones I produce." the female twin explained while pointing to herself and her brother.

A jubilant chuckle was ripped out of the throat of the female standing a few feet away from Yoshimi. Fiddling with the ends of her long light blue hair, the girl glanced up from inspecting her locks. Her sharp baby blue eyes landed on Tanami and Akihiko for a split second. "I would say it would be best to trust those whose Quirks are the creation of gemstones. There's no doubt that they would know more than you. Do you know how the mohs scale works with density and hardness?"

Mei's lips pursed together. Embarrassed, she turned away and crossed her arms. "No one asked for your opinion!"

"And no one asked for your retaliation." The blue-haired girl responded and pressed the sides of the two buns on the side of her head as if to make sure they were not loose. "My name is Haku Ichigo. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. My Quirk is Light Wings. I can summon six wings, three on each side of my back made purely of light. I can attack or defend with them. And as they are wings, I can fly as well."

"Haku?" Yoshimi mused in surprise. His nose suddenly scrunched up when the short jingle of defeat filtered out of his phone's speaker, however that was not the reason for his behavior. "Your family is high up in creating support gear. Didn't you just pair with Hatsume Industries?

"Yes we have. And pray tell, what do you wish to ask with this information?" Ichigo inquired with a crook of a brow. The teenager radiated a mature and formal aura. Her hands were cupped to her stomach, back straight as a ruler, and carried herself with poise. She stared at him, waiting for answer with a calm expression painted over her features.

The dual-colored-haired male shrugged and waved a hand nonchalantly. "Nothing. Just wanted to ask a question. I'm Ikeda Yoshimi. Call me Shimi, I'm used to it. My Quirk is known as Gamer. Everything I see looks like a video game. I have objectives to complete, such as 'getting out of the escape rooms'. I can make multiple small screens and present them. I have a small map that tells me whether the people around me are a civilian, friend, enemy, et cetera. I also have a limited inventory."

"Ah, does your Quirk inform you beforehand of what each person is situated as?" Junpei suddenly pointed out. He has laced his fingers and placed them directly underneath his chin. The boy had tilted his head, waiting for an answer that he probably already knew.

Yoshimi's eyes lit up, glowing a slightly brighter shade of aqua for a moment before it reverted back to its normal shade. "Yes, Junpei. Just like I know your first name, your age, and your Quirk's name. Speaking of which, what exactly is Wings of Deduction. Mind explaining?"

Smirking, Junpei flicked a strand of hair that fell into his one visible pink eye. Taking a mocking bow toward Yoshimi, he allowed his voice to flow. "My full name is Sayori Junpei. Don't wear it out! As said by mister whatever-over-here, my Quirk is Wings of Deduction. I can summon butterflies made solely of light. When they touch a person, they're able to show and tell me about said item or person. They can show me someone's past too. Since they all show me facts, it's easy to deduct something. Pretty interesting don't you think?"

"Sounds perfect for being a stalker in my opinion," Kagemi murmured to himself while adjusting his glasses. The male had shoved his fingers into his pockets and stepped up to stand next to Tanami and Akihiko.

"Oh," the pink-eyed boy hummed while tilting his head to stare at him. He jabbed his finger accusingly at the white-and-black-haired teenager. "Whatever you say! I'm not keen on going to jail for following someone twenty-four-seven. Sounds like way too much work and effort! Besides, how do we know you don't have a Quirk like that!"

Scoffing into his hand, Kagemi shook his head. He untucked his hands from the pockets of his crimson pants. "No. I don't have a Quirk like that. My Quirk is Smoke Mirror. I can emit a reflective type of smoke from my fingertips that make it appear like you're stuck in mirrors. I'm Onishi Kagemi by the way."

"S-so it's fairly certain to say your Quirk is good for confusion, right?" a femine voice piped up with a bit of a stutter at the beginning.

Akihiko blinked. He recognized that voice. Pressing her fingertips together sheepishly, Hitomi's crimson eyes stared at her ruby shoes. She jolted up slightly once she noticed everyone's gaze was on her. "I'm Hitomi Shinsha. My Quirk is just that I'm made of the same material as a gummy bear..."

"Does that mean your hair is edible?" the boy with cotton candy-haired raised a hand. Since Yoshimi was standing next to him, he jabbed the shorter male in the chest with his elbow. He wheezed slightly. "Sorry if it's inappropriate. I'm Ono Daiki. My Quirk is Living Drug. By knowing the chemical composition of a drug, I can convert the properties of my blood, saliva, and sweat into it. I know it sounds really disgusting but- you know, eh. I can't really change anything about that."

At first glance, it is easy to see that Yoshimi and and Daiki did not seem like a pair that would go together. Yoshimi was blunt, rude, and said things as they are. Daiki appeared to be someone who was more eccentric as he would occasionally bop on the balls of his feet or speak constantly to Yoshimi in what seemed to be random topics.

While everyone continued to speak about minor subjects, Akihiko lightly brushed his elbow against Tanami's arm. Perking her head up, she raised a brow as her nose wrinkled. He gestured to the entirety of the room as to say, 'we have not really inspected the place we are stuck in.' Forming an 'O' with her lips, the shorter twin nodded twice before looking around the room.

The door behind her immediately grabbed her attention before she shook her head. Considering this was an escape room, the door would be locked. There is a reason it is called an escape room. The purpose is to leave and not by the conventional means.

As expected from the old fashioned school, the room looked straight out of one of those old haunted hotels with a flare of fantasy and cleanliness. Placed expertly on the lower part of the walls were wooden planks that were a deeper shade of brown than the chocolate floorboards of the actual escape room. The upper walls were painted with a red and black diamond design. The source of lighting came from the lamps attached to the walls with candles burning inside of it. The far right wall was littered with book cases which were filled to the brim with monotone colored books. To the left of them were wooden desks pressed up to the wall. Multiple items lined the tables and a clock hung on the wall in front of them.

Picking up his foot, Akihiko stalked over to the olive painted wall and pressed a foot to the fallen thing. The wall itself was sturdy but after inspecting it further, had small parts of metal that acted as clicks. He glanced upward. The ceiling that was a part of the original room was held up by thick, metal wires that kept it suspended in the air. Beside him, Tanami tightly jabbed the top of her shoe against one of fallen walls. It did nothing when she pulled her foot away. She shrugged and the dangling crystal on the side of her face clunked against her jaw. Before he could get a word out, the voice he dreaded to hear wafted into the air.

A skeptical hum drifted out of Junpei's throat. Tilting his head to the side while spreading out the fingers of one hand. A playful smirk slipped onto his lips as his dark pink eyes sharpened at the sight of the tan skinned teenager standing off to the side. "And you? Aren't you going to introduce yourself, miss Nomura Yua?"

The teenager perked up and her lips screwed to the side. Curls of deep, muted pink cascaded down her back and framed her narrowed violet eyes. "Why should I?"

Shinsha raised her hand as if to signal her position. Pressing her fingertips together, her crimson hair swayed just a bit. "W-well, we're supposed to work together t-to get out of here? We need to at least know a tiny bit about each other."

She scoffed and turned away. "This is a waste of time. I don't have to interact with any of you. I don't even want to be here with weaklings."

"Weak? This display of teenagers appears weak to you?" Junpei clasped his hands together as he spoke questionably. "You are surely mistaken! Everyone at Mizu is chosen for having strong and support Quirks. You're just throwing a tantrum because someone as important as you did not get into U.A., right? But, of course you wouldn't want to hear about that again, now do you?"

It seemed like that comment caused a trigger in her head. Her face contorted in anger as she forced her body to step up to the shorter male. "Don't you dare tell me that you used that Quirk of yours."

Crooking a finger, Junpei smiled sweetly. As if on cue, the sight of a glowing butterfly fluttered to him and landed on his finger. A moment later, the insect crumbled into a flurry of sparkles. "Then I won't say a word about my butterflies then."

Suddenly her arm lashed out and her fingers curled around the white collar and red tie on top of his collar bone. Yua jerked him toward her. Without much effort, she lifted the boy off the ground. Junpei's feet scraped the ground as his toes barely touched it. "Hmm, so violent! Unfitting of a Hero! No wonder U.A. didn't accept you. How did you get in here then? Did you bribe the school?" he smiled. "Oops! My bad, I didn't mean to say that outloud. Mizu is known to be prideful- and quite literally, questionable with their teaching methods but, they wouldn't allow such a thing!"

As the situation escalated, no one dared to move to intervene. Whether it was due to the fact that they did not know each other well or that they wanted to see how it played out, it was not certain. A loud sigh drawled out of someone's lips. Grumbling about people being too loud and moronic, Yoshimi slowly walked over to Akihiko and Tanami. He acknowledged Akihiko and took a quick jab at Tanami's intelligence with a snort. Daiki followed and gave a short wave.

Pointing lazily at Junpei and Yua, he motioned lightly with his head at Tanami. By then, he had started a new game on his phone. "Use your Quirk to tear those two apart."

The girl's eyebrow raised as she stared at him questionably. Akihiko seemingly got the idea as he fished out the two shards from his pocket. Without waiting for Tanami to get the idea, the two crystals released a soft glow. With a swipe of his hand, a combination of obsidian and amethyst materialised into a smooth wall between Junpei and Yua. The darker gemstone took up the majority as the amethyst was only a tiny spot on the bottom corner.

Once Yua noticed the emergence of something sharp at her foot, she quickly released her grasp on Junpei's collar and threw him back. The boy landed awkwardly on his feet, nearly stumbling to the floor. Stunned, she just stared at the glinting slab of obsidian. It was not long after before she scoffed and adjusted the end of her sleeve. Junpei only smirked and lightly kicked the patch of amethyst. "Quite sturdy."

Despite the fact that the twin's hair were made of literal amethyst, it was extremely difficult for either of them to use it with their Quirks. It was the only reason they never used their hair because it was pretty useless. Akihiko's nose scrunched up at the small piece of purple standing out against the obsidian and blatantly ignore Junpei's comment.

Yua shook her head and pointedly stalked over to a chair placed toward the left of the room. She sat down in the oak chair with black cushions and crossed her legs. "I don't have to do anything with the likes of you people."

"No, you do not. But most of us want to get out of here." Ichigo commented while turning to glance at the clock. "The least you can do is say your Quirk."

Kagemi pushed his glasses to the bridge of his nose before brushing his white and black bangs aside. "There's a total of three rooms. I don't know about you but I'd rather arrive home at the normal time. Just speak."

The curly pink-haired teenager pursed her lips and glared daggers at everyone in the room. A few seconds trickled by before she answered. "I have two Quirks: Psychometric Movements and Feral Unbound. Combined, it's called Psychometric Ferality. With the first, I can copy the movements or actions of anyone after seeing it performed once. Doesn't work with Quirks. The second is tapping into a person's primal and rage instincts and raises their strength and senses. I can do it to myself as well."

And with that all said, she screwed her jaw shut and did not utter another word.

"A Pillar and a Powerhouse, huh? No wonder. Either we have five Powerhouses or six Pillars depending on how you look at it. Ugh, I thought teams had five and five!" Mei suddenly shouted while placing her hands on her hips. "But I guess this works somehow."

It looked like her embarrassment from earlier faded.

Taking in a deep breath, Tanami slightly slumped forward. "Okay, so what do we do first."

"Try to not deck each other at first sight." Kagemi suggested with a laugh. Needless to say he was met with a few glares. The teenager only shrugged his shoulders.

Breathing in deeply, Akihiko resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. It did not take much thought to know that at least half of their classmates would not make much effort to get along, let alone help each other. Obviously he would be able to work with Tanami. They would probably argue over something stupid but that was normal so it was not much of a problem. Kagemi... that would be extremely difficult. Akihiko had met Yoshimi beforehand multiple times through Tanami and they could work together with the same amount of enthusiasm while working on a biology project. Despite not staying in contact with Hitomi, or Shinsha, the two would be fine together. Daiki and Ichigo seemed friendly enough so they would not be a problem. The people who would be troubling are Yua, Junpei, and Mei. Especially Junpei in his case.

Before thinking about it further, his sister's fingers pinched around the fabric of his blazer. She jabbed her index finger at one of the tables. At the same time, Yoshimi rolled his eyes. "Alright, I don't want to be in this creepy room. I assume you don't want to be in here either. For the sake of getting out of here, just try to work together to get out. Search the room."

Closing his mouth, Yoshimi finally pocketed his phone. Motioning to his friend, Daiki, they both stalked over to the various bookshelves lining the wall. He peered over his shoulder nonchalantly and tucked a strand of dual-colored hair behind his ear. "Huh? Do you just want to waste time or did you ignore what I said? Though I could care less if you do work. As long as three or four comply, that will be enough to get us out I think."

Without saying another word, Yoshimi tore his attention away to speak idly with Daiki.

Tanami raised a hand to her chin and hummed a random tone. She tilted her head lightly in Akihiko's direction. Her lips tugged upward at the remembrance of his impromptu plan during their exam. "For someone who could care less about anything, Shimi's actually pretty good at speaking and getting his point across."

An unwanted memory slivered up into her mind. She did not try to hide the shiver racking her spine at the memory of Impression's words. Her fingers curled into a fist. The weight of a hand placing itself on her shoulder snapped her out of her reverie instantly. Her eyes met the same shade of periwinkle that colored her own irises.

"No spiraling," Akihiko raised his hand, showing off the bits of watermelon tourmaline floating in his palm. "I definitely do not want to make tiny statues the rest of the day."

Puffing her cheeks out, Tanami weakly punched her brother in the arm. "Hey! It's not like it's hard."

The tips of his lips twitched. "No, it is not hard but I would rather spend my time doing something else. Anything but sculpting would be preferable."

Raising both arms above her head, the familiar sensation of pops ran down her joints like water falling from a faucet. With a content sigh, she hummed in response. "Let's get out of here."

With that said, a few minutes trickled by as most searched around the room.

Feeling a strand of light pink hair droop into his line of sight, Daiki brushed it aside with his finger only for it to fall once again. Puffing a small bit of air in frustration, he tried his best to ignore it. His hand delicately swooped over the rough texture of the binders of the multicolored books shoved neatly in the book case. The trek of his arm came to a sudden halt. With the raise of a brow, his head tilted as his fingertips caught the feeling of four bumps on the binder.

Pursing his lips together, Daiki slowly slipped the book free from its hold. The moment the book was freed of its containment, a confused yet frightened scream ripped itself out of someone's throat which was quickly followed by a string of colorful wording.

At the sound of a voice slicing through the air, everyone's head quickly whipped around to identify the person who screamed.

The chair where Yua had seated herself had her in an iron grip. Metallic cuffs had emerged from who knows where on the chair and latched onto her wrist and ankles, binding her body to the piece of furniture. The pink-haired teenager jerked her right shoulder. As expected, the movement was useless as her wrist did not let up.

Confused creases marked the girl's forehead. "What did one of you do?" she inquired in a low, threatening tone.

Daiki was quick to shove the book back in its place. The locks wrapped around Yua's joints did not loosen let alone break off. "Oops. But in my defense, I didn't know that would happen."

"Hey, karma," Tanami grinned from her position next to one of the large tables. In her hand was a kabob stick with a green gummy bear impaled on it. Her brother raised a questionable brow and sighed. He did not press further and picked the other green impaled gummy bear from the small glass jar they resided in.

Curiously, a purple butterfly fluttered overhead. Delicately placing its tiny legs onto the lock, the insect crumbled to ash.

"Hah?" the noise erupted from Junpei's throat. "A Quirk cancelling lock that works even if it doesn't touch the person? How rude!"

"Wait, it cancelled out your Quirk?" Mei suddenly piped up from her position of being on her hands and knees. She was underneath one of the tables and poked her head out just in time to see the insect crumble away.

Junpei pouted and placed a hand over his heart. "My poor, poor butterfly wasn't even alive for ten seconds before it disintegrated! My butterflies take minutes to crumble! Those cuffs killed it!"

Tanami's nose scrunched up in response. With the emergence of jade settling in her palm, she flicked her wrist. The piece of crystal soared out of her grasp and collided with the metallic cuffs. The moment it connected, the shard exploded into fragments before eroding away like it was not created in the first place.

"And that confirms that Quirks are useless to break Yua out." Akihiko mumbled to himself. He rested his hand on his hip, twisting the kabob stick in between his thumb and index finger. "How thoughtful of Kohei-san to make this even more difficult."

Yua tugged her elbow toward her once more with gritted teeth and once again, it proved to be useless. "One of you get me out of here!"

"Hmm," Junpei had settled a hand underneath his chin and feigned a look of ponder as he did so. Suddenly, he slammed the side of his fist into his open palm. "No! Why should we? You're the one who said you don't want to be with the likes of us! Well, neither do we!"

By the time the pink-eyed boy began ranting, Kagemi had kneeled onto the wooden floor behind the chair. The white-and-black haired male cocked his head, gnawing on his bottom lip as he looked at the back of the chair. "There," he motioned at the odd hole engraved on the back of the chair leg. "A keyhole. It needs a key to open."

"A key? Where are we going to find a key in here?" Shinsha glanced around sheepishly as if she would catch something strange. However, everything in this room was strange.

Someone cleared their throat to break the conversation. "There's a color code lock behind these books."

Shimi motioned to the bookshelf and the neatly stacked books beside his shoes. Half of one of the shelves were empty, revealing four small digital panels which were green, pink, blue, and red. Numbers would flicker every few seconds. "Here's your first clue."

Tanami rolled the stick in her fingers. The green color of the panel caught her eye. Raising it up to her face, she looked at the candy while twirling it around. "Hey Aki, how many gummy bears are there?"

It took a few seconds before Akihiko finished counting the remaining bears. "There are four in the jar, one in my hand and one in yours. A total of six." he turned to Yoshimi. "Six could work for the green."

Pressing a finger to the panel when the number six flashed, the number settled with a cheerful ring echoing around the room. Yoshimi fiddled with the end of his blazer before yawning heavily. "One minor thing down."

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It did not take a genius to realize that a group of fifteen-year-olds with little to no knowledge of each other in an escape room would be a disaster. Naturally the event would go haywire. Mizu Academī knew the reason for doing so would end with little victories.

Mizu purposefully stringed together teams that would not be an ideal match. Whether it be clashing personalities, Quirks that would not mingle together well, or those who would not cooperate at all with each other. At first glance, it would appear to be an absolutely horrendous idea. Why would you make a team with little or no chemistry?

By doing so, it would be safe to say that you are gearing the students up for failure. A broken team will not function. A broken team will fail. A team of ten will not be stronger than a single Hero this way.

Despite the utter ridiculousness displayed, Mizu has planned this down to the very wire. One thing that is not taught in other Hero schools is what happens when those need to cooperate with each other. With the emergence of agencies needing to combine for certain cases, many fall out due to the fact that they cannot work together or they do work, but it is held by a thin thread. Another reason was the acceptance that those with adequate Quirks can stand beside those with strong Quirks.

You do not need to be physically strong in order to do something to save people after all.

Hero schools have created their exams only to suit those who can easily take on enemies. Those with support Quirks find it increasingly difficult to be admitted to the Hero course as a result. They would only transfer into a Hero course if they showed enough potential. Otherwise, it was difficult.

Pushing this information aside, the ten classmates were having little to no success in escaping the first of the three rooms. In fact, it descended into something of chaos instead.

They managed to free Yua from her containment after finding out that the red color were the nine dead roses in the corner of the room, the pink were seven glowing dots underneath the desk, and the two oddly placed blue crayons hiding behind the snowglobes on another table. The bookcase spat out a tiny key which was used on the chair. Needless to say that Yua did not thank any of them for helping her and Junpei decided to make a snide comment. It resulted in keeping the pink-haired girl from beating the small male.

From then on, everything went further downhill. At one point, Hitomi had tugged a bundle of yarn from its strange position behind the jar of springs. They all accepted that the room was filled with weird things at this point. Kagemi, who was standing next to her, was met with an unfortunate occurrence. It seemed like the yarn had been adapted to wrap itself around anyone who touched it because the instant it was yanked free from its spot, the string suddenly came to life and tied their wrists together. As expected, Quirks did not work on the blasted yarn and no scissors or knives could be located in the room.

Not long after did Junpei and Yoshimi break out in an argument. The dual-colored teenager had found a scrambled lock key with the letters XQORFN. It looked like absolute nonsense but the clue with it said that it revealed a six letter word. It was quick to cut out the possibility of it being an actual word that could be unscrambled with those letters.

Being curious, Junpei stalked over and was quick to point out his thoughts. Yoshimi tried to work with him but Junpei was quick to shut him down with a know-it-all smile. They were quick to disagree with each other as Yoshimi argued that it could have been a staggered alphabet code while Junpei argued that it could have been a number letter lock. Neither tried to cooperate with each other as they could not agree on what to do.

The ten could not get out of the first room by the end of the school day. The only good thing about the day was the fact that the food they were given through a panel that opened through the floor. That was an awkward time.

Crackling echoed out of the speaker. "Not so easy trying to work together, huh?"

Ichigo had coughed lightly into her hand before brushing a piece of light blue hair behind her shoulder. "I believe impossible with some people would be the more accurate term."

A flow of amused laughter rushed out of the speaker and died down into a string of words. "Impossible at the moment maybe, but it won't be forever. Every single one of you are going to have to get along or at least try to cooperate with each other. This team right here is going to become an Equidistant team."

"A what now?" Tanami asked.

Ignoring the question, Kohei continued to speak. "Besides the obvious fail that you have received here today, there was one thing you overlooked that could have easily gotten you out of here. The door you came in through was still open."

Silence hung heavily in the air.

Stepping forward, Mei stalked over to the door they entered through. Wrapping her fingers around the knob, her wrist twisted and the door effortlessly swung open, revealing the olive colored hallway. "It was unlocked. The whole time. This door was unlocked. We could have literally waltzed out of here. We could have left. We could have left the moment the walls fell down."

"Well that's just fucking fantastic."

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Author's note:

To be honest, I had to keep counting on my fingers to figure out if I did get all ten of them in this chapter. I then I kept accidentally writing the name Elizabeth because I wrote this after doing my English essay. And then my friend told me that Junpei sounded perfect for being a stalker or an information broker. That sounds about right.

Besides that, whose Quirk do you like the most out of the ten mentioned in the chapter?