She was at yet another beautiful festival, the Ikigai Haru Matsuri. A festival she had attended plenty of times, but this would be her first as a hero in training as well as without the overbearing nature of her parents nearby; she could be herself, relatively speaking. She was a bit surprised that Farrin had asked her to accompany him so early, but who was she to turn down the opportunity to snack on so many delicious treats? After all, with all of their hero assignments, she’d earned this. With their early arrival, there would be many shops already set up and prepared to go, while others would slightly lag behind.

Natsumi, despite the lack of her parents, would still be fairly noticeable to people, as some would rush over to greet her, giving their best wishes, and others would give a simple wave. Her parents had given her a reputation that preceded her even in times when she simply wanted to go unnoticed; maybe on her next outing she would try wearing a hat. In any case, she would greet them all with her usual warm smile, shaking any hand that found its way to her and returning friendly waves to the people who offered theirs first.

Farrin’s question would get a small chuckle out of Natsumi. Granted, she hadn’t been in the crowd much like this alone, and with Farrin walking beside her, she wouldn’t be surprised if someone mistook him for a bodyguard.

"Yeah, all the time as a kid. But it was a bit different with a protection detail around."

She would look around a bit at the faces that passed by and the shops, simply happy that she could experience the festival in such a different way than she was accustomed to.

"Anywhere specific do you want to start, or do you just want to dive in?"

Natsumi would ask, unaware of what type of food Farrin was in the mood for, if any at all.

Seeing the smirk in Farrin’s face seemed to alleviate some of the worry, as she knew that even with the damage he had taken, it hadn’t dampened his spirit. Their plan of splitting had worked out relatively well, as it seemed they had prepared for a frontal assault by awaiting them at the front door, a costly mistake for them. But in his ascent of the tower, he had also gathered a few more—three—bringing their total saved to nine. It didn’t surprise Natsumi in the slightest that the upper portion of the tower is where they kept the majority of the hostages, as they probably assumed the ambush would be enough to either outright stop the duo or severely tire them out.

But as expected, Farrin would be interrupted by the sound of metal scraping in hallways; it wasn’t over just yet, as she would assume the final two villain bots had emerged. Turning to face them, the duo would prepare themselves for one last bout, with Natsumi nodding and making an audible humming sound in agreement with his statement. As he took off towards the bot to the left, Natsumi would do the same, charging at the bot on the right.

As much as she would have to admit it, she had grown a bit tired and perhaps a bit sloppy with the prior combat, so she would use the environment to help make up for that shortcoming. Getting close to the bot, Natsumi would bait it into swinging at her, and as it did, she would try her best to spiral away to avoid it, only to receive a partial strike to the shoulder, forcing her to spin a bit faster than intended. Using that momentum from the spin, Natsumi would stomp at the join of the bot's arm, the blow just hard enough to bend both external and internal metals, stopping full use of the arm before she would quickly dash up, grabbing the bot under its head firmly while swinging over to its back in an attempt to tear its head free.

The bot would move a bit faster than expected and attempt to drag its back along the wall. In response, Natsumi would shrink herself down and quickly swing herself back around the front side, striking at the bot's collar area and pulling a small bracket out of the way before forcing her way inside the bot's chest. Once inside, Natsumi would randomly grab for wires, tearing as many as she could get her hands on. In response, the bot would begin to malfunction, starting with awkward twitching and then moving to the upper torso, which began to freely rotate until it eventually came to a complete stop, the bright red glow of the optical unit fading out.

Natsumi would strike the chest panel inside a few times before it bent out just enough for her to escape. Once out, she reverted to four feet again. Huffing a bit but with a smile still in her face, she would give Farrin a thumbs up, favoring her shoulder a bit.

"What are you thinking for lunch?"

She would say it with a bit of an exhausted laugh.

​With the hostages safely hidden in the elevator, Natsumi would continue her descent, clearing the floors below. Each floor was another battle, which quickly became a war of attrition. A floor filled with standard combatants with stun batons, followed by another floor filled with combatants armed with stun rifles, and a few that had both, with the occasional addition of the smaller humanoid villain bots; those were by far the worst. When fighting them, the issue became their ability to track her quick movements, and even as sporadic as she attempted to make her movements, they would somehow manage to find patterns in her randomness. Whereas before she had cleared the first few floors flawlessly, she was now lucky to get by without being struck or grazed once or twice.

It was becoming clear that even with their divide and conquer method, there would still be enough to become a nuisance. But with almost every other floor she cleared, she would find another hostage to rescue, and as she reached the halfway point, she would have a total of about six hidden in the elevator. After she cleared her current floor, she would take a moment to catch her breath, but she wouldn’t do this in front of the hostages. It was important for a hero to seem strong regardless of the odds, so when she stood with them, she wore a bright smile. Even with the scrapes and bits of dirt that would begin to build on her costume.

Although she was finding time to catch her breath, she was uncertain if Farrin would have such an opportunity. The rumbling on the floors below seemed to only echo up the empty staircase as she would utilize them to make her way down, and it seemed that every time she entered, the noise would continue. And so, knowing his battle was still dragging on, she would have to cut her already short break to gather herself even shorter. Taking a deep breath, she would head down the staircase again, finally making her way to the halfway point, only to find the floor completely empty. It would have appeared that their plan worked, with half of the buildings forced to be separated.

With this realization came a bit of terror; if they had all separated evenly, with some sitting on the upper floors and the others heading down to the lobby, that would mean that when she found her way down in waves with small breaks, he might have gotten the onslaught all at once. The feeling of dread set in as she would shrink herself down to her smallest size, speeding off along the floor, quickly striking each door as she moved, breaking each door open in a mad dash to clear it.

As Farrin would continue to fight fiercely below, Natsumi would continue to scour through rooms on the upper floors in search of the hostages, but she was beginning to see a distinctively annoying pattern. Occasionally, when locked doors were opened, she would shrink and strike the doorknob, using her enhanced strength to break it free from the door, only to find an empty room. This would continue to happen even as she forced the elevator shaft open and would descend to floors below.

From the shaft, she could hear the feint sounds of a commotion, which would only hasten her speed. The first three floors cleared quickly; random rooms were filled with mock paper, filling filing cabinets to make it seem authentic. But since there were still no people, that would change once she reached the fourth floor. Prying the doors of the elevator open, she would be met with the sudden turning of a group of six people. And a much smaller bot that she hadn’t seen before.

The men were armed with what she would only assume to be stun rifles. There would be an awkward pause as they looked at one another, taking the time to register what was actually happening. Natsumi would force a smile in an attempt to lighten the mood in hopes it would buy a few extra seconds to plan her attack.

"Wrong floor?"

As she spoke, the men would take aim and begin to fire. Quickly darting in, she would quickly, but for some time, narrowly dodge the gunfire. Once close, she would kick and push the direction of their weapons at one another, breaking some of them but also forcing a few to fire at their stun position before she realized her position was becoming too much of a hazard with their near misses getting closer and closer to hitting their mark.

Shrinking her size, she would fly into the bot, using a small gap between its shoulders to take cover inside of it, the weapons first hitting off of the paneling and making a distinctive ringing sound. It wasn’t perfect, but it would work. Flying through the boat's body, she would tear a few wires leading to its head before forcing it off, flying up and throwing the helmet towards one of the men, taking the time of confusion to then quickly take her leave, dashing off down the hallways looking for any hostages on this floor, with one of two people chasing behind her. She was confident her speed could keep her at a safe distance.

While moving down the hallway, she would zip past a cubicle, grabbing a stapler to hurtle at one of the men behind her, who was struck in the helmet and knocked off his feet. This would give her just enough time to rush back and pull the legs out of the other, which seemed to have done the trick, as she would hover in the hallway for a moment before continuing her search.

The answer to her question would be something she wouldn’t have expected: his small display of speed that served as a warmup to start the mission had been done without the assistance of his quirk. With her thoughts prior being how much she would struggle to keep ahead of the tempo of his strikes, it would only be made worse by the use of his quirk. If his smirk was any indication of his use of it, he would be much faster. But she wouldn’t expect anything less of the man who wished to be the number one of not only Japan but of the world.

His comment on her quirk would warm her smile as she nodded lightly in agreement with it. After that, he would move on to formulating a plan of action. The hostages were held in a large building that would be easy to reach, but they wouldn’t be allowed to enter and search for them freely. Her first thought would be to simply fly to the top of the building and infiltrate it from there, using the element of surprise to work their way down and clear it floor by floor. But the small hitch in her plan would be Farrin. Even at her smallest and arguably strongest, Natsumi would struggle to carry him to the top of the building, and after such a hike, she would most likely need to take a breather. But if they took a split approach, a two-pronged attack, they would split the focus of the combatants inside.

"Divide and conquer. I start high, and you start low. We worked our way to the middle of the building. More people will focus on you easily, and I can take a few out if they try to make their way from the upper floors down to you."

An interesting plan in theory, but she has always been told during her brief training to leave a margin for error, as no plan is ever fully proofed. Her margin would be combatants not splitting evenly, leaving one side to deal with more than the other. But even then, she was still fairly confident in her abilities to either fight them off or do her best to regroup with Farrin. But the most important part was that their plans seemed to align rather well; she would nod her head in agreement to Farrin just as the bell would ring, signaling the duo to begin.

Natsumi would shrink herself down, bringing her height to four feet, before she would quickly begin to flap her wings to hover in place. Her attention pulled away as she first noticed the crackling emerald energy; it wasn’t her doing, so it was safe to assume it was Farrin’s. She looked over to see him readying himself, so she would prepare herself to do the same. The slowing of everything around them would start slowly but become more aggressive until Farrin would dart forwards, and Natsumi would follow his lead as she would quickly flap her wings, following closely behind, fully intending to change her direction upwards as soon as they reached the main doors of the building.

Natsumi was admittedly a bit nervous for her first hero simulation mission. But the butterflies in her stomach were a feeling she had grown accustomed to throughout her life. She would breathe in deeply, holding her breath at the top for a slow count of five before exhaling; she had this all under control. Closing the locker door to make sure her costume was fitted correctly, she would take time to inspect it. Her costume seemed childish, but it was of her own design, a design that she had tried to update as much as she could as her time to have a costume created drew near. It was only the first iteration, and she was sure there would be more to come, so for now she would have to deal with the slight embarrassment.

The simulation for today takes place on the beta training grounds; the objective is hostage rescue. A forward-looking task. Her partner for the assignment would be none other than Farrin, better known as Oberon. The duo had met before, so there would be less formality they would have to exchange to get comfortable with one another, but there was one glaring issue: they hadn’t ever discussed their quirks, so this simulation would also display how they would work with unpredictable variables. Exiting the locker room and making her way to the ground floor, she would repeatedly natter to herself.

"Perfection is perfect."

A mantra she had picked up as a child to accompany her breathing as she would make her way onto the ground and towards Farrin. She would see Farrin, who was doing a bit of last-minute training himself, which would help get her out of her own head, if only for a moment, as she would smile warmly.

"Hi, Oberon. Ready to start?"

She would emphasize his hero's name as she said it, not only to show that she had remembered it but also as a professional courtesy. They weren’t viewing each other as fellow students, as they had before, but as fellow heroes.