The stone room is cold. It's dark, damp. And the screams of my family echo in my mind. Mother is crying, begging to spare us. My brother is trying to bear the pain, the other one is lying on the ground, passed out. Everything is so painful. And the stench of blood is almost suffocating. "Again." His cruel voice demanded. Kei and I struggled to remain standing before the chains came again.

Don't fall down. Don't fall down. Don't-!

"Nozomi!" Ow! Something smacked down onto my head, startling me awake. Aizawa stood in front of my desk, a clipboard firmly pressed down on my head.

Huh? Oh. I'm in class. My erratic heartbeat began to calm and the small amount of sweat that began to build due to the dream stopped. I fell asleep again.

Aizawa, who looked angry before, took notice of my pale complexion and the bags under my eyes. He probably gathered I had a bad dream. Well, a memory.

And today was when Izu could come to class. Because of his and Kacchan's fight, the two couldn't participate in these special classes for a couple days.

Huh? Three unfamiliar students stood at the front, a girl and two boys. Seeing where I was looking, he sighed. "Don't sleep in class. These three third years are the ones who stand at the top of all U.A. students. The Big Three."

I blinked before pointing at the dark haired one who was rather gloomy and facing the wall. "Even him?" My friends around me sweat at my question and the said kid became even gloomier.

The girl who seemed to be in la la land laughed before turning to her companion. "Oh listen, Amajiki! That's called having the heart of a flea! Even though you're human! It's strange!" She laughed it off.

I didn't say that. She sure put him down quickly. She turned back to us and gestured to him. "This is the flea, Amajiki Tamaki. And then I'm Hado Nejire. We were asked to talk to you guys about work studies. But wait." She went over to Shoji, looking at him curiously.

"Hey, hey, why are you wearing a mask? Are you sick? Trying to look cool?"

He backed up a bit since she was invading hi personal space. "This is because in the past-"

He was interrupted by her as she took stood straighter to look back atTodoroki. "Oh my! You must be Todoroki, right? Right? How did you get burned right there?"

As he was beginning to answer she turned towards Mina. "Ashido, if your horns break off, will new ones grow in? Can you move them? Well? Ah. Mineta, are those balls of your hair? How do you get a haircut? Asui, you're a tree frog, not a toad, right? There's so much I want to know about all of you! It's so strange!"

My eye twitched. "Are you stupid-mph!" Kaminari and Sero quickly covered my mouth.

Kaminari seemed to think her airheadedness is cute, but it's not. It's annoying. Even Aizawa is getting irritated with her.

The blonde guy began to sweat seeing our teacher on edge. "Don't worry, Eraser Head! I'm going to wrap things up, right?" He moved his arms kind of like Iida.

Hopefully he will. One's depressed, the others a toddler, please let him be the rational of the three. Although he doesn't really look it.

He looked over to us and leaned over, his ear towards us. "The future's gonna be . . ?" He wants us to finish? What the hell are we supposed to say? Scratch that, he's not the sane one, none of them are. Even my classmates didn't know what to say or make of the situation.

"Grim! That's what you were s'posed to say, right? All right, my call-and-response was a huge fail!" He laughed, not letting anything affect his mode.

They're all weirdos. All of them.

The only one I can remotely try and understand is the depressed kid. But y'know, the blonde kind of reminds me of another idiot. All Might.

They're U.A.'s Big Three? This school is ridiculous. "Well, you guys look like you're not sure what's going on, right? We're third years who suddenly appeared to explain about work studies that aren't even required. That's confusing, right?" The blonde asked, before putting his hand to his chin and humming thoughtfully.

I guess he's the leader of the three of them. That's not comforting in the slightest.

"You guys got your provisional licenses as first years, right? This year's first years are really . . . energetic, right? Besides, it looked like my jokes didn't work earlier, right?"

Ah, something about him changed. It was for a split second, but I noticed. So did the other two as well.

He threw his fist in the air. "Why don't you all fight me at once?" He asked, an air of confidence about him.

Huh? "Wh-What?!" My class shouted in disbelief. He rubbed his finger under his nose and looked over at our homeroom teacher. "It's the most rational to have you all experience our experience firsthand, right? How about it, Eraser Head?"

Hm. There's something about that atmospheric change that bothers me. And the other two's reactions. This kid . . . I got a feeling that this isn't going to go well for us.

Even Aizawa seemed to be looking at him a little differently, but he allowed it. So we all changed into our uniforms and went to the training grounds. The blonde, who I came to know as Mirio, was in front of us, limbering up as if he wasn't going to face off against an entire class.

Well, an entire class minus Kacchan. He won't be coming back until tomorrow since he instigated the fight.

"Um, are you serious?" Sero was the one to break the ice as everyone looked at Mirio with uncertainty. "Totally serious!"

The other two also changed into their PE uniforms even though they weren't the one's we were going to fight. And Amajiki has his head to the wall again, a bit away from us.

"Mirio you probably shouldn't. For the work studies, it would've been enough for us to say, 'This is how it was, and I learned a lot from it'. Not everyone is filled to the brim with ambition. We can't end up with kids who are unable to recover after this." He mumbled. But it was so soft and he's facing the wall so it was hard to hear.

Unable to recover? Ah man, that feeling is back. I guess I should probably take this seriously. Why is Todoroki the only one allowed to skip? It's so unfair.

Hm? Hado is playing with Mina's horns, she's not liking it. "Oh listen! Did you know? In the past there was a student who got so frustrated the student quit being a Hero, and that caused all sorts of problems. Did you know that? It's tough, isn't it, Togato? If you don't think things through properly, this'll be rough. Really rough."

I kept my face wiped and walked over, grabbing Mina and pulling her away from Hado. "Kiri!" She hid herself behind me, away from Hado.

Hado looked at me curiously but I kept my face an emotionless mask. Rough? Please. There's nothing they can do to me that I haven't already experienced. Humiliation, pain, frustration? Those aren't mutually exclusive and they're all something I grew up with.

The memory of my dream popped into mind but my face remained a slate. There's no way they'll get under my skin.

Still, I should be weary. Hado smiled and tilted her head. "Your eyes are so sad to look at. So empty." I didn't react, only studied her. She looks like a sheltered girl. One that's looking down on me. All three of them are. It's annoying.

"Please wait. There's a handicap in place, but we've fought the Pro's before." Tokoyami surprised us as the one to speak, but soon Kirishima stood next to him.

"And we've fought with Villains before, too. Do we look like such weak small fry to you that you need to worry about us?" He asked.

Mirio only nodded, the smile never leaving his face. "Right, you can come at me anytime, from anywhere. Who's first?"

Were you even listening?

Unexpectedly, it was Izu who made the first move. "Here I come!" Oh? Now that's interesting.

"Problem child! That's good! You really are energetic!" Izu got in a stance, ready to launch as the green sparks danced across his skin and everyone else began to get ready as well. "The close combat team should surround him all at once!" Sato said. Tch, that's me included.

Oh well. We'll get in close, the others will support us from the back.

Izu launched towards him and Mirio's . . . clothes fell off?! What the hell?!

Jiro screamed loudly, but the close combat fighters ran towards him as well. Mirio got a little flustered and went to put on his pants, but that left him wide open for Izu. He struck his leg out and it . . . went through his head?

What the? Is it a Phantom Quirk? No that's not quite right. "You went for the face, huh?" He asked as tape, laser, and acid shot through him as well from the long distance fighters.

It went through him and he . . . slipped through the ground? Wait a minute, could his Quirk be . . ? I turned quickly, too far from the long distance team.

"Jiro!" I shouted, since she was at the very back. Like I though, he popped up behind her. "I'll start with the long distance fighters!" He declared, surprising Jiro again with his nakedness.

Shit! If that's his Quirk then we're in trouble! As they started to attack him he slipped through the ground against and began to propel himself up towards them, one by one, striking their stomachs.

This isn't good. He's taking them all out in an instant!

Togato Mirio, huh? So that's how strong he is. This is bad, how do we fight against that?

He took out more than half of our class. What do we do? Once he was done with them, he faced us, the close combat ones. Izu, Ochako, Kirishima, Iida, Ojiro, Sato, Koda, Toru, and me. This isn't looking good, huh?

Focus. If that's his Quirk then it's flawed. There's always a flaw to every Quirk. "Izu." I said, readying to evade. My best friend nodded.

"Yeah. I think there's some kind of trick here! Whether he's applying his 'slipping' power to warp, or applying his warp power to slip through things, he's attacking us directly. So long as we go for the counter, there should be times when we can touch him! If we can't tell what he's doing, then we should figure out assumptions with what we do know and do whatever we can to find a way to win!"

The moment he strikes is our best chance. "All right, thanks! Midoriya right after the house arrest is amazing!" Idiot. Izu is always amazing.

But I like that Izu fired them all up. Okay. Predict his movements and evade. Counteract.

Mirio began to run our way before slipping through the ground yet again. This caught them off guard again, but I expected it. He's coming . . . from behind Izu!

Izu seemed to figure it out already. He turned around as Mirio came up and struck his leg out towards him. Mirio reached his arm out and it went through Izu's leg, heading for his face. It went through Izu's face and he closed his eyes in anticipation of pain. But it's a distraction. Mirio turned his body and brought his other fist towards his stomach.

Before he could strike him I jumped over Izu, grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him up and away from Mirio's strike, barely missing it.

I glared at Mirio who began to disappear underground again. "Midoriya, Nozomi!" Iida shouted. I turned to them as I landed on my feet with Izu in my arms.

"Watch out! Behind, Iida!" I shouted. But it was too late.

Mirio appeared behind and as Iida turned, he got him, right in the gut like the others and he was down for the count. Shit! Shit, shit! "Kirishima, harden!" I commanded. He didn't hesitate and did so, but Mirio had hit him with enough force to make him lose focus.

"Kiri-Nee! We gotta do something." Izu said, sparking again as he got ready. I know. But what can we do? He's too strong.

Izu launched at him as he went to strike down the girls, the only ones remaining at this point. But his attacks went right through no matter how much he predicted his movements. Soon it was only me.

Mirio appeared in front of me and went to strike. This is the only chance! I allowed him to strike me and the pain made me cough. But I can't lose. This is nothing!

My hair morphed and managed to slash his wrist. He was caught off guard and I swung my leg up, but it went right through him and he went under ground.

I landed on my feet and pushed the pain aside. Pain is a state of mind. This isn't getting me down. He appeared again behind me and struck my side. Again, I held strong and lashed my hair at him but it went right through as he disappeared underground.

That's not gonna work again, is it? Ah! He's in front of me and he swung. Using my quick reflexes, I dodged to the left. He brought his leg back and I did a backflip to evade it.

No matter how many times he went to strike, I'd evade, what with my reflexes and my flexibility. This is how the game continued. Me predicting his movements and dodging. But that won't get me anywhere. It's just like fighting against TetsuTetsu.

Ah! I lost focus for a second and his foot slammed into the side of my head, sending me into the ground. Blood began to trickle from the head wound but I moved my body, swinging my leg up and going through his stomach. I flipped onto my feet and he went into the ground again.

I won't pass out as easily as the others. That gives me enough time to think of a plan. What do I do? How do I fight against this? Think! Ah. That might work!

I began to make swords from my hair and would throw them wherever Mirio popped up. Of course he'd go through them, but that wasn't the point. I had to take a couple hits, but soon the entire battleground had swords sticking all throughout it.

I reached into my hair and pulled out the wire I keep hidden in there. Mirio lunged at me but I dodged again and swung the wires in a large arc, seemingly trying to capture him. Of course it went through.

Gritting my teeth I ran at the mountain and began to hop from rock to rock before going into the sky.

Mirio was propelled upwards into the sky after me. "Did you think you'd be safe in the sky?" He asked. But I just smirked, causing his smile to slip a bit as confusion set in.

Idiot. You're just in the right place!

I yanked my hand and the wire caught the light, making it visibly. The swords it hooked onto were flung his way, blades up.

"Ha! Those can't-ah!" His eyes widened slightly but I smirked, not bothering to move as I allowed my body to fall towards him and the swords. If he allows them to go through, they'll strike me down.

"You're a Hero, right?" I asked, a taunt to my voice.

Mirio gritted his teeth and reached out, wrapping his arms around me and tried to move out of the way mid air. Two of the smaller swords pierced him, one in his shoulder, the other in his leg. But I didn't pull hard enough to where they'd cause actually damage.

Together we fell to the ground. I wrapped my arms around him tightly and made no motions to land. Making him hold me tighter and take the brunt of the impact.

We rolled on the ground before I quickly whipped out a knife from my hair and held it to his throat.

I win-ah! He went through the ground again! Even the swords that wounded him were left behind. He reappeared away from me. "Whoa! That was dangerous!"

Aizawa stepped up, holding his hand up. "That's enough. Nozomi, what were you thinking?" By now most of my classmates had recovered and were watching with wide eyes.

I frowned, standing up. I'm already bruised and have some blood still dribbling down the side of my head from when it bounced off the ground.

"I was thinking, how do I land a hit. He's a Hero, so naturally he'll want to keep innocent people safe and out of harms way. I just exploited that." I shrugged.

Izu winced. "Kiri-Nee, couldn't you have said it a little better, 'exploit' is too much."

My brows furrowed in confusion. I just called it like it is. Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. "While that was a clever countermeasure, that was extremely dangerous and both of you could have been a lot more injured then you are now."

I rolled my eyes, placing a hand on my hip. "I didn't use enough force for it to be that bad."

Jeez. He's exaggerating. Talk about a diva. "You don't think his opponents won't do the same? It's good practice." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.

Well regardless. I can't beat him. That wasn't a win, he escaped. And that was my ace in the hole too.

We all lined up, most of them still in pain. Hado skipped over to me. "Wow! I've never seen a student remain standing after Togato's hits!" She exclaimed. I glanced at my classmates and sweat dropped at their appearance.

"Well aside from that scary tactic, did you think my Quirk was strong? Do you know what it is?" Mirio asked. Mina, Sero, and Toru immediately began to complain that it was too strong and they wanted it.

It is a handy Quirk. But only if you can wield it like him. Anyone else they wouldn't even be a fraction of his strength.

Hado went over to Mirio and held her hand high into the air. "I know! I know what his Quirk is!" She announced. My eye twitched.

Is she an idiot? Of course she knows, she's in his class. "Hey, hey, can I say it? Can I?" Man she's annoying. She's really getting on my nerves. And she really wants to say it. "It's-"

"Permeation." I interrupted, stealing her thunder and throwing her for a loop.

"Awe! I wanted to say it!" She pouted. I know, that's why I said it. "Hado, it's Mirio's turn right now." Amajiki siad, but he still wouldn't face us.

Mirio only laughed. "That's right! My Quirk's Premeation. What you guys called a warp was, as you guessed, an application of that."

That's not exactly right though. But the mention of it got Izu excited, what with him being a fanboy about Quirks.

"What exactly do you warp?" He asked, pulling a notebook out of god knows where. Mirio didn't seem to mind though. "If I activate my Quirk through my entire body, then my body can go through everything. Everything. That means the ground too."

Figured as much. "Then that was you falling through the ground?" Ochako asked in disbelief.

Mirio nodded. "That's right. I fell underground! And then, when I release my Quirk while I'm falling, something strange happens. Apparently things that have mass can't overlap so I get repelled! In other words, I get repelled to the surface in an instant. That's how my warp works. By changing the angle based on the direction of my body or the pose I'm holding, I can aim for where I get repelled to!"

That's not an easy feat though. "Sounds like a buggy game though." Mina stated, a slight pout on her face. "You could say that!"

He laughed but I think it kinda made him gloomy. "So you can avoid all attacks and move wherever you like in an instant. It really is a very strong Quirk." Asui said.

No. It's a terrible Quirk. It's just that he made it amazing.

"No, I made it into a strong Quirk." Mirio voiced my thoughts. "While my Quirk is activated, my lungs can't take in oxygen. Even if I breathe in, it'll just go through, right? In the same way, vibrations go through my eardrums and light goes through my retinas. I can go through everything. That means I can't feel anything. I just fall even while I have mass. That's all it is. Does that make sense? That's why, if I want to go through a wall, I activate everything but one leg, then I release the other leg and land on it, activate my other leg and go through. Even for a simple action like that, there are a bunch of steps involved, right?"

He had a Quirk stone made with that ability, but no one was able to use it properly, so it was thrown out. It really is a troublesome Quirk.

The others were beginning to realize it too. "That's right, as expected, I was always behind. In no time I dropped to dead last. I dropped my clothes too." No, you still drop them.

"In order to get to the top with this Quirk, I couldn't just stay behind."

He began to poke his forehead rapidly. "Predictions! I had to think faster than those around me! Sometimes I had to be tricky! Above all, I had to be able to predict what would happen! And what made those predictions possible was experience! I built my predictions on what I knew! It ended up being kind of long, but that's why I wanted to fight you all! I wanted to show you through experience rather than words! In our work studies, we're not guests-we're treated as one of the sidekicks and as Pros! That's really scary. Pros will sometimes end up watching people die. But those scary and painful things you'll go through, all of them are first rate experiences you wouldn't be able to have at school! I changed the experience I got during my work study into power and took the top spot!That's why I think it's something you should do even if you're scared, first years!"

Turn experience into power, huh? While his speech seemed to inspire everyone else as they began to clap, I couldn't help but look up at the ceiling.

Watching people die . . . painful experience. Yeah. I guess he is right. Dealing with that will definitely make a person stronger. That's something I can actually agree with him on.

But the rest of them? Can they handle experiences like that? Will it turn into power or will it turn into a weakness? I'm not sure. The fact that Mirio can handle this makes me actually kind of respect him.

I will never admit that to him or anyone for that matter though.

But I'm worried. The Villains have become restless. I have no doubt they'll hinder these internships.

I guess I'll see if they can handle this, just as he said. Will they be able to handle those kinds of hardships? Can they handle someone being crippled? Can they handle someone dying?

I . . . don't know. But I have to say, that they always do surprise me. Maybe they can. Maybe they can't. I feel like we'll find out soon enough though.