She tightened the grip on her bat. Things were going south fast and there was no way they could pass the test by just standing around like this. The floating ring was turning into a bigger problem than she liked, they needed to deal with it and they needed to do it quickly. “This way! We’ll break through and get to that vantage point!” She pointed her bat at one of the groups of monkeys, deciding on a course of action instead of just standing around.

The tanky applicant ran in first to absorb some of the damage from the robot attacks, all the while Freja stepped out from behind him and started hacking down a path for the applicant carrying a rifle. With another swing to one of the robots’ heads it collapsed opening a narrow path for the third applicant. “Now!” She signaled, the rifle student blitzing past her and the tank. It already felt like a victory, but it was short lived as Freja took a jab to her midsection, losing her balance as the robot had landed a clean hit on her.

The student with the rifle continued to run, all the while their eyes were trained on the ring in the sky. Once they calculated they were within range, they slid into a crouching stance to stabilize their aim as they pointed the muzzle of the rifle upwards.

Clank.

Clank.

Clank.

The sound of rapid, metallic footsteps closing in on them tumbled from behind. Freja and the durable applicant had tried to hold them all back, but unfortunately a robot had broken off from the group and was closing in on them. The robot was about to bring its arm down on the rifle carrier when Freja smacked it aside with her bat, panting, bleeding. She bashed it once more and fell to her knees just as the shot rang out from the rifle and hit the ring. Thank god it was a hit.

With this, the evacuation could continue with hopefully much less casualties.

Fuyuko

Freja raised an eyebrow. “May Twenty-First, like the date?” She didn’t mean to be judgmental or anything, but she hadn’t heard a name like that before. As far as she knew there weren’t any cultures where naming your young after dates was a thing. Was she just messing with Freja? That was probably more likely. Not that it mattered, May was a cute name all on its own. “D-Do I?? I do, don’t I?” She chuckled, her face still burning warm with the embarrassment of it all. She had to be putting on a performance worthy of the most awkward student at UAU right about now. “Are those all…” she trailed off, noticing how many pages were presumably filled with photo memories. “You like taking photos?” It was kind of endearing, and she had to admire how well May was reacting to this whole incident. Had their situations been reversed she would have probably freaked out and yelled at May.

“I really didn’t mean to!” She closed her eyes and put her hands together as she bowed her head shamefully. “Right..” she stopped herself, realizing that May probably wasn’t as offended as Freja would have expected. “Really?” She looked over at the counter and almost as if on cue her stomach started to growl. “If you insist.” She smirked, quickly looking away when May bent down to get the shower robe. “I’m up for talking.” She went over to take a seat. “It’s really nice of you to offer and besides, I’d like to get to know my neighbor a little better too.” She set her bat down next to her. “I was practicing with this thing. Some heroes use their fists, but I carry a weapon.” She blinked her eyes and looked back at May. “School is nice, but it’s exhausting.” She sighed, “I wouldn’t be so tired for practice if my brain wasn’t fried from the lessons, you know?” She gave her own temple a soft tap with the back of her knuckles. “How about you? Are you liking school, May?”

May Twenty-First

For some reason this entire time, Freja had felt as though Grinta was well over 6 feet tall. Maybe it was because of how intimidating she was? Did she just exhibit a lot of tall girl energy? She blinked her eyes as she was finally handed her bat again. Words couldn’t describe how relieved it made her. To be without her bat she felt helpless and weak, almost as if the weapon itself was her quirk. At least, she imagined that’s how a quirk user might feel if they lost access to their powers temporarily.

She looked down at the bat as Grinta gave advice, almost as if she could visualize then and there exactly what the vigilante was saying. It was smart. Honestly, Freja was a bit embarrassed, she was hardly a weapon designer, but she had had a big say in how her bat, BBB had been crafted and tinkered together. She was so hyper focused on listening that she didn’t even realize Grinta would playfully tap the bat against her head until it hit her. “Ow.” She muttered, even though she clearly wasn’t hurt by it.

“..Right. Thank you, I’ll think of something.” Gloves wasn’t a bad idea, not only would they be useful, but they would eliminate her biggest fear, that is, losing the grip on her bat at the most critical moments. Had Grinta been just a little more of a murder hobo like she had initially suspected, the student probably wouldn’t be alive right now. “I-I won’t!” She exclaimed, holding her bat a little tighter. She had already died like an idiot once. Not only did she owe it to the kindness of Grinta’s mercy, she owed it to original Freja to live on no matter what happened.

What came next was completely unexpected. She had seen the vigilante levitate earlier, but she hadn’t been sure then if she was just hallucinating out of sheer terror, or if her quirk actually allowed her to fly. She got her answer when Grinta blasted off from her hunched position. Freja couldn’t help but let out a startled yelp. Was it her quirk or some gear? Honestly, it didn’t matter. Putting her bat away, Freja put her hands up to cup around her mouth as she shouted to the rapidly disappearing criminal. Hopefully she heard her.

“Thank you!”

Jackie Maradona

Kenta… What a strange guy! She had been scared when he initially approached her, but now she wasn’t even sure how someone so nice could have looked scary two minutes ago. The exaggerated bowing had her covering her mouth as she giggled. Kenta was definitely not a bully, if anything he already felt like someone she could feel safe around.

She chuckled when he was right on the money about the student that wanted to fight others. “He was behind me so I didn’t get a good luck, but I think that’s O’Rourke you’re talking about.” She might not have seen him but the accent was unmistakable. No one else in school sounded like Farrin to her knowledge. “I know right? It was surprisingly short, just a big speech to get us all riled up and then he took a few questions.” She shrugged, having expected the same as Kenta, a much more formal orientation. “Now?” She blinked her eyes. Well, she had planned to go back to her room and cry, maybe die of cringe a little bit at how she presented her question at the orientation. However, pushing those feelings aside and hanging out with Kenta sounded a lot more preferable. “Sure! I haven’t had anything to drink for a few hours.” She smiled, “can’t go getting dehydrated.” She would start walking towards the cafeteria expecting him to follow. “So what brings you here? Big dreams of wanting to be a hero? Is your quirk one of those extremely powerful ones?”

The spring festival had been ongoing for a while now and while it was a fun experience every time she went, Freja also felt like her social battery drained so fast being around that many people days on end. Ultimately, she ended up needing a break and missing out on some of the days. Luckily for her, that meant she would have time to text Kenta and plan on heading back out to Tokyo together to hang out at the festival grounds. Eat some food, see the sights, just hang out and do the kind of stuff that friends do.

Friends.

It was still a concept that was fairly new to her. She thought she knew all about it from back home, but turned out her trying to befriend gang members of all people hadn't been a very good idea in hindsight. Normal friends wouldn't tell you to kill someone to hang out with them. That still gave her shivers to think about, how young and stupid she had been. Thankfully she never actually killed anyone, but maybe there was a reality where she might have gone through with it?

It just so happened to be May the 4th and Freja was a pretty big science fiction geek, so of course her outfit for her and Kenta's outing was jedi robes. She wasn't sure if it would be too nerdy, but she trusted Kenta would be cool with it since she had a great experience with him the first time they met. He seemed like the kind of guy that wouldn't mind, and might even be a nerd like her too.

When they finally met up, Freja had already bought a tray of takoyaki balls to share. ''You made it! Great to see you again, Kenta. Isn't it nice to get away from school for a bit?'' Even though it was noisy in Tokyo, it was a different atmosphere. ''Wanna split 'em?'' She held up the tray of food. ''It's impossible to resist the snacks out here when there's so many food stalls.'' She smiled.

Muruyama Kenta

''Indonesia, huh, that's quite the trip.'' She smiled, feeling just a little bit more at home with the fact that she wasn't the only exchange student that had come here from outside Japan. Going to hero school AND running a YouTube channel? Freja couldn't imagine the workload, not to mention the bravery! Making videos for presumably hundreds, if not thousands of people online. She could never. ''Hm?'' She blinked her eyes as she looked over at Zahra, caught off guard by the English, but just as quickly as she had switched her language, so did Freja. ''Actually, English is a lot easier for me to speak, yeah.'' She admitted, ''It's much closer to my native language, learning Japanese was a real challenge. Your English is great too, by the way!''

''J-Join you?'' She became a bit flustered, ''..as a cameraman or something, right? If you need someone to hold the camera or do boring stuff behind the scenes, th-then yeah I'm qualified!'' She gave a thumbs up and chuckled nervously. Anything but being on camera. Still, for Zahra to even consider Freja for a role like that when they had just met was really nice of her. After moving the last box Freja was about ready to collapse, and she did on the common room couch. ''My arms are burning..'' She whined, ''do you wanna get something to eat? My treat, it's the least I can do after you helped me. I don't know how I would have moved all that without your help.''

Zahra Poetri

The large gator man growled, immediately trying to lift his hand back off the ground as it got anchored in place. For a second it even looked like he was entirely outmatched by Farrin, but unfortunately fights like this could turn on a dime, especially when their opponent was this big and strong. Sure he wasn't the fastest, but if either her or Farrin took a hit the damage would be significant. If anything, being that she was just a regular woman she was lucky she got out of that first attack with just one broken hand. ''Farrin!'' She feared the worst when the tail snapped and sent him flying. She wanted to check if he was okay, but she knew backing down meant certain death. She had to stay in the fight, just like Farrin had been when she took a hit.

She swung for the gator again, but unfortunately he had already begun phasing and disappearing back underground. ''Farrin! Are you okay?'' She called out, knowing full well that it would be better if they stayed apart so the villain couldn't trap the both of them in his jaws at the same time.

His jaws...

Just then Freja got an idea, watching and listening closely to the ground as she tried to determine where the gator would appear. There was no doubt in her mind that Farrin was perceived as the bigger threat right now, which was great, she could play into that. Climbing onto the tree stump from earlier, Freja panted as she took aim with her bat tip, it was a little unsteady because she could only use one hand, but thankfully her target was big. If Farrin was his target, that meant he would surely try something that would put him away for good, like the jaw attack from below again. With the way the gator was phasing, Freja was going to take a gamble. Sure enough, the jaws began to appear around Farrin and just then, she pressed release on the grappling hook mechanism and fired it straight into his head, phasing right through it to bury itself in the top soil below. The gator was practically cackling as he got ready to bite, but before he could, Freja undid the mechanism. Only the hook wasn't flying towards her.

Jumping off the stump, she had taken the shape of a dropkick in midair and was using the grappling hook to propel herself forward instead, using her own body as a weapon for once. The hook quickly came undone, due to the soft of the dirt, but it was already too late, with the momentum and added speed, Freja slammed right into the gator's head, causing him to scurry back underground. Freja tumbled a few additional feet before she came to a stop, using her bat as support to get back on her feet. Both her and Farrin had taken considerable damage, but they had also dished out a lot. ''And... And stay down!'' She taunted the villain. ''I-I don't suppose you can heal broken bones, can you?'' She smiled at Farrin, trying to bring a little light into their dire situation.

Farrin