It was a new thing the school was doing, mystery sparring opponents. The idea being you didn't get any prep time, but only got to see who you were facing moments before the sparring match started. It was meant to simulate the real world, and how as heroes they could never be prepared for what kind of villains or vigilantes society might throw at them. It made sense to her, quirks were so varied in their substance and expression that one couldn't possibly be ready for anything and everything. Sometimes you had to adapt on the fly.

Well, whoever got her sure lucked out, or was unlucky, depending on how they would look at it. As a quirkless student she probably wasn't much of an opponent to most, but she had been honing her fighting skills and training more lately, so she was going to give it her all regardless. She didn't have a hero suit yet, so she had shown up in her UAU sports wear, gotta represent the school even though they were on school grounds! She had also tied her gray hair back in a ponytail so that it wouldn't get in the way. Naturally, she had her trusted bat, BBB by her side too. She wasn't expecting this fight to be an easy one regardless of opponent. Something she had learned in the last couple of months since joining hero school was that nothing was ever easy around here. Taking to her side of the barren PE training grounds, Freja stood and waited for her opponent to arrive.

Leo Kaiser

''You got it!'' She was glad he was onboard with his idea, especially since this kind of training would be beneficial to the both of them. She expected him to dodge the first attack as easily as he did, but the way he dodged and weaved her wire almost made her think that maybe this was more training for her and just play for him. ''Y-Yeah?'' She panted, was he giving her advice WHILE dodging the whip attacks? Skie was seriously impressive! Were they really in the same class? Maybe she had stumbled into a natural born genius and she just didn't know it.

Anticipate where he will be... She squinted her eyes, trying to predict his movement all the while keeping up her attacks, but it was easier said than done. At this range it felt like she was trying to swat a fly, but her hits were ever so slightly delayed and the fly was insanely fast. Why was he a small dragon, why couldn't Skie have been like, a car-sized dragon?! She could feel her eyes getting tired. Unpredictable? How could she outsmart super keen dragon senses? It was funny, even though he was a lot faster than her, his advice felt helpful and didn't feel like he was taunting her or anything like that. If anything, he was only enthusiastic and encouraging. ''How about this then!'' She smiled, yanking the wire upwards, most likely unsuccessful in her prediction, but she was starting to understand what he meant by aiming ahead. Rather than aim directly for him, she continued along this line of thinking, her eyes honing in on Skie as she really focused on finding a pattern in his movement too. Maybe she could land a hit before she needed to call for a break? ''Y-You're so fast! How did you get so fast?'' She was frustrated, but she was having fun too, maybe his cheery disposition was just that infectious.

Skie Amano

[attr="class","likedo"]

It happened so quickly that she barely even had time to feel dread over her missed attack before Sho pitched her back into the homerun swing. A swing which she poured all her remaining power into, practically falling over from the force she had applied once Ice-ekiel had been hit. She didn't even care if they had won the fight here, if this was the end, because truthfully she couldn't move another muscle even if she wanted to. ''D-Did we do it?'' She breathed, looking up at Sho. No ice attacks yet, which was a good sign. They were also fighting in a pretty public area, so reinforcements should be upon them any minute now.

''Thanks, Sho-san. I would have freaked out and messed up if you weren't here.'' She admitted, closing her eyes and rolling onto her back. ''I don't think I've ever been this tired in my life.'' She had gone through an experience much like this one the day that she died, only it was surrounded by flames back then. She strained to keep her eyes open. ''Are you hurt?'' She thought back to that hail attack and forced a smile. ''The heroes will be here soon. You'll be treated, you'll be okay. Just... Just hold on.'' She closed her eyes again, feeling unusually tired. Hopefully the cold feeling would fade from her body soon. A cup of tea would be nice right about now.

Shō Matsui

Freja wanted to call for help, wanted to say anything to retort against this psycho, but the truth was it hurt too much to say anything, she was out here losing blood fast and with each passing second she wasn't sure if she was going to make it, or if this was the place where she died again. Was there anything she could do from her position? Kick the villain and maybe hope to knock him over. Well, she wasn't exactly faster than a speeding bullet, and she wasn't strong either, so there was a good chance a kick from down here was barely going to have an effect on him. Thankfully, before her brain could run on and on for much longer, Gyrfalcon finally appeared, as suddenly as he had first appeared no more than a few minutes ago.

''Drop the gun?'' He scoffed. ''Don't be ridiculous! You think a sword beats a gun in a fight? Go back to the Edo Period, loser! Do you know how expensive this thing was? Do you know how hard it is to get ahold of a gun in Japan?'' He was pointing it at Gyrfalcon now, and while he rambled on and on, he also didn't linger for long, quickly taking three unprompted shots at him. ''Now die, die, die!!'' He shouted with each shot, the zombies helplessly from the sidelines. It wasn't just that they were made to stand guard, they were forced to watch.

Shō Matsui

''Y-Yeah. I was.'' She was sweating. After having fought that propeller freak that forced her to attack Rin against her will, she wasn't exactly stoked at the possibility of having her freewill fall under the control of a villain again. It didn't make her less nervous that Gyrfalcon here had his sword ready, all too eager to cut her down should he want to. ''You got it!'' She jumped up to her feet and looked at the crowd of zombies as they shambled towards her.

''At least you're all slow, that should make this easier as long as I don't get boxed in.'' To make it even better, she was relatively tall too, meaning reaching the mushrooms with her bat wasn't all that hard. She had taken down about five of them when she went for another one, only the mushroom flew off more like a prop, than anything quirk related. Then the 'zombie' pulled a gun out and shot her in the abdomen. ''Boom!'' The villain laughed, his zombies stopping in place behind him as Freja dropped her bat and fell to her knees clutching her wound.

''That's acting, baby. You thought I was one of them, right? Nuh uh, it's all a trick, I was hiding among my own slaves because I'm just that good, I'm just that smart!'' She had never seen him before, but this psycho theater nerd was definitely some degree of unhinged as he started monologuing. ''You're really getting in my way. Why did you try to fight me? You could have been part of my army, dude! I'm taking over Tokyo, you could have been there! In fact...'' He grinned ominously, reaching a hand down to touch the top of her head. ''Wait, what? Ew! You some kinda freak? Why doesn't that work on you!'' He kicked her onto her back and pointed the gun down at her. ''You had a plus one, didn't you? Where's your shadow friend? Call him out here right now.''

Shō Matsui

She frowned at the quirkless comment. ''I'm quirkless, not helpless!'' She was used to it, but that didn't make it any nicer to be doubted for it. ''I'm a UAU student, I know what I'm doing.'' Was it wise to tell him? Probably, probably not, but it didn't really matter, she wasn't thinking long term. She was thinking about the here and now, and right now she needed Gyrfalcon to trust her enough to take out this mushroom overlord with her.

She looked down at her trembling hands, oh wow, they really were shaking weren't they. ''I-It's just excitement!'' She lied, ''I just look forward to getting this done and getting out of here!'' Get it together Freja. You can be as afraid as you want after this whole thing is over. Cry in the shower if she needed to, but right now there was no room for tears.

She flinched when he shot out those arms. She didn't know he could do something like that. She didn't like that he slammed them into the ground either. At the end of the day, these were all just civilians that were controlled getting hurt. ''..Really?'' She looked at him, waiting for his joke. Waiting for the joke that never came. ''B-But I...'' She scrunched her face up looking at the mushroom and now she was starting to second guess her own account of events. She had been running all over that house trying to escape, had she really been grabbed in the moment, or was she just imagining things? Maybe she wasn't immune after all. Bending down next to one of the mushrooms she hesitantly extended a hand and touched it.

No effect.

She let out a sigh of relief. ''See?''

The sound of glass breaking tore her attention away as one of the windows to the house got smashed in. The zombies had definitely noticed them now.

Shō Matsui