[Yanai Yoko]

''Have you ever thrown a punch before?'' Yoko asked her roommate as she smoked a cigarette on their way to the physical education grounds. The perfect way to warm up before a fight. She intended all the disrespect in her question, mostly because Nat seemed like the type who was too timid to actually throw a punch, or even get into a scuffle with someone else. She was well aware that there was a practical exam to pass to get into UAU too, she just found it hard to believe Nat could fight at all. ''Well, either way I'm telling you today you won't get to. Because here's what we're going to do...'' She took in a drag of smoke before blowing it back out.

''We're going to throw the fight and upset Yuki Onna.'' It was the perfect plan. She was a Yanai, so naturally whether she liked it or not eyes would be on her. That also meant if she lost embarrassingly to a teacher and refused to fight a pro hero there was a good chance word would reach her father. She got to be lazy AND ruin the family name. The perfect combination. The rest of their class had already gathered as they were supposed to take turns fighting the combat instructor Yuki Onna, showing how good their teamwork was against a seasoned pro. ''Got a problem with that?'' She scowled at Nat, expecting little to no pushback.

They were supposed to be watching the other matches and learning something from them, but once things kicked off Yoko didn't pay all that much attention. Flashy quirk here, halfway decent teamwork there. Yuki Onna was impressive, but that was to be expected. When their turn finally came, since the students were already at a bit of a disadvantage being first years fighting a pro and all, they were allowed to bring certain tools or weapons, but only as much as they could carry. ''This fine with you, sensei?'' Yoko held up and pointed at her standard red umbrella. It didn't matter what Nat picked, they weren't going to take this seriously. Not in the first round, not in the second round and certainly not in the third round.

''And by the way.'' She raised the volume of her voice, making sure the entire class as well as their teacher heard it. ''We're going to beat you without using any quirks.'' It was a stupidly bold declaration, because their loss would look that much more embarrassing after. Yoko started by opening her umbrella to shield herself from the small rain cloud that formed seconds later over her head. Like any good teammate she looked at Nat and nodded towards Yuki Onna. ''You first. I'll be right behind you.''

nat
Shirayuki Mai

[nat]

“Punch is a drink.” Nat replied in her usual flat tone, but she wasn’t intentionally being vague. It was just a funny bit of wordplay that came to mind, and also she really considered her punching whenever she tried to be one of her weaker points when it came to fighting. She already considered herself to not be very good at fighting as a whole, it was just her kicks and things like that weren’t the worst. Glancing over at Yoko, Nat’s eyebrows slightly raised in curiosity at what plan it was Yoko had come up with that would circumvent needing to fight at all. Her face went right back to its usual stoic look once she actually heard it. She didn’t mind the scowl Yoko gave her, but she did actually have a problem with that. She didn’t want to cause problems either, but wasn’t it Yoko herself that had told her not to just go along with things? “You can do what you want.”

That was a good middle ground, right?

Glancing at the umbrella, Nat wondered if that was actually some kind of weapon and if Yoko was some kind of umbrella-fighter? Or maybe it was a tool that helped her use her Quirk somehow? Aside from somehow making a rain cloud, her roommate’s Quirk was still a mystery to her. Apparently she still wouldn’t, with Yoko’s declaration about not using Quirks, and Nat couldn’t help but slightly smile at the way she phrased it. Nat couldn’t use a Quirk even if she wanted to, so it was like a little in-joke of sorts. She didn’t expect Yoko to suggest she start things off, but this time she had no objections at all as she inclined her head. “I’ll go high, you go low.”

Once they were starting, Nat was going to sprint towards their opponent and attempt to aim a high kick at the crook between her shoulder and neck. A pretty obvious move, and she was hoping that even though it would probably miss or be blocked or she would get attacked before it could land, it’d at least leave an opening for Yoko to do something.

Yanai Yoko
Shirayuki Mai

[Shirayuki Mai]

"Naturally," Mai replied. It went without saying. As far as weapons or equipment went an umbrella was far from the most outlandish one she'd seen. Why, even she herself used scarves of all things. "You may certainly try," she once more responded. This time she added a nod as well. Whether it was arrogance, confidence or care for her roommate remained to be seen but intentions aside Mai approved. Pushing oneself to their limits was the only way to reach one's true potential. Biased though she may be as a martial arts instructor in her opinion there was no better place to start establishing a foundation than with one's own body. By putting her back to the wall through adding social risks to a situation that would otherwise be a safe sparring match Yoko could push herself that much harder.

As expected of a Yanai.

When the pair attacked Mai made sure to keep both within her line of sight. Maintaining a neutral posture she tilted her head and leaned to the side enough that Extra-Ordinary's kick would go over her while whipping one of her costume's scarves towards her other ankle. Natesa's footwork was solid in Mai's opinion. It was clear the girl had an advantage over her peers in that regard. Committing this fully on the first strike however she could not approve of, even if it was to create an opening for her ally. 

Mai would make sure that mistake got worked out of her fighting style as soon as possible. With the way she'd aimed her scarf it should wrap around the girl's ankle. Either she'd have to unwrap it and leave her ally to fight by herself during the time that took or leave herself open to whatever the Pro Hero was planning.

With that she waited for her other opponent to make a move.

---

Tags: nat,Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

‘‘That tells me all I need to know.’’ She concluded at Nat’s joke answer, not entirely sure if her roommate was actually serious. ‘‘That means you’ll barely have to do any acting.’’ Which was great, because she couldn’t imagine Nat’s acting skills being any less than subpar unless the casting director was looking for a doormat. She stopped walking for a moment when Nat gave her answer to her plan and even though she had called Nat a pushover in the past for always agreeing with her, she was kind of upset that she didn’t agree with her this time. ‘‘You’re damn right I can, and I will.’’

When Nat suggested she go low she just stared back at her and remained silent. She wasn’t about following orders and she didn’t want Nat to think her plan was going to be good, or going to work. She was here to look pathetic, she wasn’t going to put up a fight that would make her, her sister, nor her father look good. Still, she couldn’t just stand around and do nothing, otherwise her plan was too obvious. She had to fight just enough that it looked like she was actually putting in effort. Dashing forward, Yoko held her umbrella close to her body as she looked for an opening. She decided to go low, but not because Nat had told her to or anything, it just made sense after Nat had done a high attack. Thrusting her umbrella forward, Yoko would try to jab Mai in the foot. Thankfully she didn’t have to fear them accidentally winning that much since their opponent was pretty strong.

Shirayuki Mai
nat

[nat]

Yoko lightly grilling her in response to the joke answer was amusing in its own way, but then the time for jokes had passed and Nat found her kick sailing clear over their opponents head. Suited her just fine, she could just let that foot land on the ground and then shift to her other foot an - the scarf wrapped around her still grounded foot before she could lift it. There wasn’t a follow up tug just yet but if she tried to swap legs it wouldn’t be hard at all to just fling her off balance.Yoko coming in with her own attack gave Nat a window though, however small it might actually be, so instead of trying to do anything about the scarf at all she tried to bring her whiffed kick down and around to stomp on her opponents other foot while she was defending against Yoko’s attack.

Nat was hoping if she got yanked now it’d just put more weight into the stomp, but if not… well, she was just going to have to improvise from there. She didn’t mind taking a tumble if it kept the instructor busy too, so at worst they’d just have to try coordinating in some other way. That was her thoughts on the matter in the moment at least.

It was a pleasant surprise though that despite her grumpiness, Yoko actually did go along with her high-low plan.

Yanai Yoko
Shirayuki Mai

[Shirayuki Mai]

As expected of two inexperienced combatants that had only met recently their combination attack was sloppy at best. Nat's kick had come far too early and Yoko's jab far too late. The result was not unlike in movies where each combatant came at the main character one by one, albeit Nat and Yoko at least managed to make their second and first strikes respectively hit at roughly the same time. Even so the fact that both of them went for the same general area was a waste of the entire maneuver.

Mai retorted by slinging the middle of the same scarf that was already wrapped around Nat's ankle in a sideways arc across the ground so that it'd be on the other side of her leg when she finished her stomp. At roughly the same time she took a small hop back to avoid both of their strikes with little ease. She waited just long enough for both of them to hit dirt before countering in a way that would likely make them hit the dirt. The moment Nat's stomp landed but before she could properly redistribute her weight once more Mai would yank on the scarf, forming the piece of cloth into a rough Z shape with the first three points being Nat's wrapped ankle, her other leg and Mai's arm respectively.

At the same time she'd carry her first small hop into a second diagonal one to put Nat directly in between her and Yoko. She make sure to lean into the hop to put her full weight into the pull as well. Unless Nat was more skilled or far faster at responding to the unexpected than Mai thought she was it'd pull her feet into one another and then pull them right her way causing the girl to fall backwards right onto her partner. Should she somehow prevent that however Mai would instead channel her quirk through the scarf to harden it and lock their respective positions in place.

Either way Yoko would have to avoid and go around her to continue to stay on the offense. It'd throw their teamwork off and Mai doubted they'd be able to recover before she started fighting back. Quite frankly Mai wasn't impressed by their performance in the slightest. Had this been a real battle and she'd been a villain both of them would already be dead.

---

Tags:nat,Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

What the hell was even going on? One second Mai looked like a tiny martial arts teacher with nothing but her tiny arms to defend her, the next she was flinging scarfs everywhere. Weren’t those just for aesthetics? Was she actually fighting them with fabric and kicking their ass? To make matters worse, Mai’s moment by moment analysis was spot on. Nat and Yoko had barely worked together, and Yoko clearly didn’t care for or even really think about her teammate when attacking. It probably wasn’t all that surprising considering they were both first years, and had very limited experience fighting others, but it didn’t help that they weren’t the best communicators either.

To make matters even worse, Mai moved so effortlessly like she was just a leaf in the wind. It was both impressive and infuriating and Yoko would have probably been upset if her plan wasn’t to lose in the first place. But damn if it wasn’t still pissing her off. She panted as she looked down at her hand, seeing that it was slowly changing color. Shit, she needed to suppress her anger at Mai or she might just lose control. She couldn’t risk transforming in front of the whole class! Maybe she should-... She paused and blinked as Nat appeared in front of her, no wait how long had she been there and why was she falling back INTO her? ‘‘H-Hey!!’’ She called out, completely unprepared for Mai’s attack as Nat fell into and on top of Yoko, causing the smaller student to lose the grip of her umbrella as she got squished. ‘‘Watch where you’re going, idiot!’’ She shouted at Nat, scrambling to get out from under her. She heard giggles and laughter coming from the sideline and a quick glance at the other students told her that they were making a complete clownshow of this fight. If only Nat wasn’t quirkless this would never have happened… But wait, wasn’t this the perfect setup for them to lose? Yoko clearly took a handful of dirt with her as she rose from the ground and charged at Mai completely unarmed, attempting to blind her with the most obvious dirt throw this side of Tokyo. Their teacher could no doubt block or avoid such a basic attack, and finish the fight to make them look weak, or something like that! She was grinning maliciously just imagining how angry her father or Hebiru might get, serves them right!

nat
Shirayuki Mai

[nat]

Nat had good balance even on one leg. The problem was she suddenly found herself on no legs before she could fully even register how quickly her other leg got compromised the moment she stomped it down into the ground. Both legs yanked right out from under her and she found herself tipping backwards with a startled look on her face. Well, startled for her was her eyebrows going up a bit. Internally though she was panicking and flailing about, realizing she was about to be thrown into Yoko and facing the wrong way she couldn’t use her arms to try and catch her fall or move aside from her roommate.

“Mov-” Nat tried to call out a warning, only to get cut off as the wind was knocked out of her and she squished Yoko. “Sorry!” She hastily called out when she caught her breath, rolling off of Yoko as quickly as she could. Yoko was a lot smaller and definitely lighter than she was, and while Nat wasn’t the tallest or heaviest around it couldn’t have been pleasant getting crushed like that. The other way around probably wouldn't have hurt either of them much. So if she was able to freely roll herself onto the ground and start trying to untangle herself from the scarf she was going to ask: “You okay?”

She kept a wary eye on their instructor while she was doing that, too busy wondering what they should try next and trying to think about exactly what went wrong to worry about the laughter from the other students. It wasn’t just that she was faster than them, that trick had completely caught them by surprise and their own tricks hadn’t done that.

nat
Shirayuki Mai

[Shirayuki Mai]

While observing the terrain and using it to your advantage were both crucial skills to any combatant the way Yoko was doing so made it clear that she had simply lost her temper the moment their first strike had gone wrong. Blaming her ally for said mistake did not leave a positive impression either. Especially when Nat's first reaction had been to check whether she was unharmed. A response far more in line with what it meant to be a hero.

The fact that Yoko was so blinded by her anger that she hadn't even noticed her partner was still unwrapping her leg was strike three. With that, Mai went on the offense. Flinging the other end of said scarf sideways into the girl's path she channeled her quirk through it, hardening the fabric to both create a sudden barrier right in front of Yoko at chest height and solidify the restraint around Nat's ankle with a single move. 

"Disgraceful. Both of you. Utterly disgraceful," Mai began while continuing to channel her quirk. "Yanai, is this all that you are capable of? Hiding behind others and flinging jabs and dirt from a distance? Bee, without a quirk to rely on honing your skills is your best option. From what I've seen so far I must ask: Are you even trying? If you aren't then giving up and resigning is your best option. It is not just yourself you harm when you fail."

Anger tended to disturb one's rhythm but nothing united people more than a common enemy. Ceasing the usage of her quirk a flick of her wrist undid the last of the binding around Nat's ankle. Another flick pulled it back to her side.

"Now, I shall give you both one more chance before I judge your worth. Make it count."

---

Tags:Yanai Yoko,nat

[Yanai Yoko]

‘‘I’m fine!’’ She sneered at her roommate while still catching her breath as she made her way back up standing. What a pain in the neck. Why was she getting so angry when she was trying to lose on purpose? The sudden scarf barrier only served to piss her off more, how the hell were they even supposed to do anything in this fight? Even if they were fighting seriously, wouldn’t it all kind of be pointless? They were facing off against a teacher and they were just useless first years. Not like they had spent years training to become heroes or anything like that. ‘‘So what? That’s my specialty! Got a problem? That’s how us Yanai fight!’’ She took the scolding thrown her way as a chance to smear her family name, but somehow, despite the spotlight, despite the chance to speak, it didn’t feel as satisfying as she had imagined it would.

Now Mai was talking shit about Nat, straight up telling her to resign? Mai had no idea what she was talking about. Teacher or not she was wrong. If anyone here had the makings of a hero it was Nat. Sure, she was annoying, she was quick to follow orders and barely ever argued, but all heroes were shitheads like that. How could Nat not be a perfect fit? ‘‘That’s what you get for teaming with a quirkless.’’ One student whispered to another as they laughed on the sidelines. ‘‘Teaming with? The other girl isn’t using her quirk, they might as well both be quirkless.’’

‘‘Shut up!’’ Yoko snapped at the student spectators, staring daggers at her fellow students. ‘‘You had your turns before us, I don’t remember either of you shitheads pulling off anything that was worth watching. All you did was activate your quirks and throw powers around, that didn’t get you anywhere did it? So shut the fuck up and watch! You had your turn you pathetic failures!’’ By calling students out directly Yoko quickly earned jeers and boos, with most of the bad attention being drawn to her. At least that was preferable to these randoms talking shit about her Nat.

‘Her’ Nat?

‘‘Sensei! You don’t know shit either!’’ The gloves were coming off, she was going to lean heavily into the disrespect because it felt better that way when her anger was boiling over anyway. The fact that all of this could have been part of Mai’s plan never crossed her mind. All she saw was an enemy she and Nat had to unite against. ‘‘Nat’s gonna be a big deal hero one day!’’ She took off her hoodie and tossed it aside, sporting a black tank top underneath. ‘‘Besides, if she quits then I’ll have to cook my own meals every night again.’’ Her skin was already slowly starting to turn blue, so she communicated with Nat one last time before she let her rage take her. ‘‘Roomie, change of plans. We’re going all-out.’’

Activating her quirk, Yoko’s muscle mass increased dramatically, her face twisting and morphing to look less than human and more like a monster’s. The only indication that she was still the same girl was her crimson red eyes. ‘‘Get this shit outta my way!’’ She roared, her voice deep and distorted to fit her monstrous appearance. With no thoughts behind her actions she punched at the scarf barrier, hoping she could slam it out of the way so she could charge at Mai. Generally, her strategy was simple. Rampage and become a problem so Mai has to deal with her and Nat gets an opening to do… Something. Nat was pretty smart, so she trusted her to think of something.

‘‘What a hideous quirk..’’

‘‘Aren’t transformation types scary?’’

‘‘Don’t lump me in with her!’’

nat
Shirayuki Mai

[nat]

The scarf suddenly stiffening and stopping her from unwrapping it was unexpected. Tugging at it with a slight frown, she wasn't paying that much attention to the other students or the instructors' skepticism. It was absolutely fair to say she needed to rely on skill, and just as fair to say her skill level was lacking. Acting like Yoko was hiding behind her though, when backline was an important part of teamwork in Nat's mind, annoyed her. The other students mocking Yoko and her increasingly angry responses to it bothered her even more. Mai undoing the hold she had on her leg let Nat get to her feet again, and she didn't speak up. Yoko had the students covered, and the instructor wasn't really wrong about Nat herself. When she failed, it wasn't just her she let down. It wasn't just Yoko she let down either.

It was hard to see on her stoic face as always, but her eyes were a bit narrowed and her frown getting a little deeper and she was trying to think of how to do better, to help Yoko look better, to show people they were wrong about the short angry girl in the red hoodie. The support and appreciation from Yoko sounded silly but to Nat it felt great to hear, vindicating her belief that Yoko was a lot nicer than she pretended. It also made how poorly Yoko was being treated all the more irritating.

“All-in it is.” Nat agreed, shifting her weight from one foot to the other in preparation while fully expecting Yoko to start conjuring up a storm or something. The transformation bulking her up into a just-as-short, blue powerhouse was a complete surprise and for a moment she was just shocked by how unexpectedly cool quirks could be. No wonder Yoko kept that in reserve, she looked like she would break stuff with a light tap! This time Yoko took the lead charging in with a big punch, and Nat came in right behind her. “Biggest swing you got, Yoko!” She called out and jumped, intending to plant a foot against Yoko's hands and let her fling her towards the instructor. If all went well she was intending to swing her other leg out in a fast, hopefully heavy hitting flying kick with a bunch of Yoko's strength focused into the relatively small point of Nat's foot.

It probably wouldn't do much to their instructor if it landed, but Nat wanted to prove that neither of them needed to resign at all!

Yanai Yoko
Shirayuki Mai

[Shirayuki Mai]

It was clear to Mai that Yoko's temper had been raised enough to leave her unable to come up with a good comeback. The one she went for was not just bad but insulting to both herself and her name. It was clear that she would need to learn control. Luckily, Mai had plenty of experience teaching it. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the students that had just spoken up, having recognized their voices enough to make eye contact with each of them in turn. It was clearly not just the Yanai that was lacking in it. Even so Mai refrained from intervening in their quarrel for now, deciding to simply keep an eye on it in case it got out of hand. Competition and rivalry were like a whetstone for skill but too much could cause an edge to become brittle instead of sharp.

Seeing the determination in Natesha's eyes she had to stop herself from smiling proudly. It seemed her gambit had worked. 

"Is that so? Show me," Mai replied to Yoko's insults and Nat's affirmation. Pulling back her scarves fully before Yoko could damage them she prepared herself for their next move. In the moments before Yoko's charge arrived Mai took a deep breath, straightening her back and squaring her shoulders as she fixed the surrounding students with a glare that made her look far larger than she was.

"Silence!"

Then all was a blur of motion, the realm of instinct, experience and preparation over thought. She knew from Yoko's medical data to not employ her quirk all too much against the younger Yanai lest she put her straight in the hospital. It was easier said than done. When Yoko went all out she was fast and her blows hit hard. The only reason Mai managed to keep her frenzied charge at bay was the student's lack of experience.

Firmly planting her feet Mai redirected the first punch before she immediately disengaged, ensuring she kept her distance so neither could flank her while the other kept her occupied. Her eyes widened when their combination attack came right at her. Instinct ingrained in her through experience let her gauge the power behind the kick letting her know it'd knock the breath right out of her. If it hit.  

Flicking both ends of a scarf down she let herself fall backwards to go under the blow, a bit of her quirk channeled through the part of her back where the scarf connected to her costume hardening it as the ends hit the ground, allowing her to keep her balance on both feet and the two scarf ends even as she tilted back more than forty five degrees. Grabbing another scarf and disconnecting it from her costume she flicked one end up to wrap around Nat's leg as it passed over her head and the second to wrap around Yoko's arm. 

Adjusting the position of one of her legs to kick off the ground Mai stopped channeling her quirk and dashed under the thrown scarf to flank Yoko. If both ends hit as she'd intended the transformation quirker would have a choice to make. In Mai's estimate she had more than enough force to tear herself free but doing so would harm Nat long before the scarf would be torn apart. 

Regardless of whether or not the scarves hit Mai kept an eye on their movement and reactions as she circled around Yoko, attempting to get behind her to once more put all three of them in a straight line, this time making it so Nat would have to go around Yoko to continue attacking.

---

Tags: nat,Yanai Yoko