When the timer hit zero, the walls of the room slid open with a mechanical groan. In an instant, all one hundred examinees found themselves standing in the middle of a devastated cityscape.
Crumbling buildings towered precariously overhead, piles of debris littered the ground, and thick dust hung in the air like a storm cloud frozen in time. The ruined city simulation had begun.
Without wasting a second, the examinees split into small teams, each group rushing off in different directions, searching for people in distress.
Mewtwo reacted immediately. With a swift pulse of telekinesis, he lifted Alice and Mirio off the ground and flew above the chaos, scanning the ruins below. From the sky, it didn't take long to spot someone trapped—a person pinned beneath a collapsed structure. Wasting no time, Mewtwo descended rapidly, landing beside the debris with silent precision.
It was an elderly man, groaning in pain as he lay partially buried beneath rubble. Lemillion and Mewtwo, quickly assessed the situation while Alice, known in the field as Revery, knelt beside him.
Meanwhile, Mewtwo sent out a calm mental message directly into the old man's mind.
'Sir, we're here to help. You're safe now. We'll get you out of here don't worry, everything will be okay.'
The old man paused, startled by the voice echoing in his head. But rather than question it, he focused on the words. It was a good start—clear and reassuring—but the man wasn't one to stay quiet.
"You've got the basics, kid," the old man muttered with a tired smile, "but your voice… it's too cold. I'm old. I'm scared. You've got to speak with more heart. Make me believe I'm really going to be okay."
Mewtwo stared at him for a moment, blinking. Then he responded, this time with a hint more weight in his words, he immediately understood that the old man's advice was part of his job, however...
'You're right. But context matters. If this were a car crash, or something isolated, I'd spend more time comforting you. But look around—this whole city is in ruins. That means others are trapped too. I can't afford to waste time. Every second we talk, someone else could be dying. Still, I promise—you are safe now.'
The old man nodded silently, sensing the urgency behind the boy's logic. Without further delay, Mewtwo lifted the rubble with a smooth motion of his hand, guiding the debris gently aside. The old man was free.
Revery stepped in immediately. She smiled warmly at the man, her arms wrapping around him with practiced care. Then, without another word, she dashed off toward the makeshift safe zone being set up nearby. Her footsteps were quick but sure, the old man now in secure hands.
Meanwhile, Mewtwo and Lemillion continued their mission. Mewtwo used his powers to levitate the rescued victims, gently floating them beside him as they moved.
After a while, he noticed some of the survivors growing uneasy with the sensation of floating midair. Without needing to speak, he redirected his path and flew toward the direction Revery had gone, aiming to hand off the victims to the designed area.
Mewtwo met Revery midway. Revery reached out and took one of the injured from his side, cradling them with the same grace and care.
After they leave the survivors. both turned back to the ruins to continue searching, a sudden impact shook the ground beneath their feet.
Everyone froze. Dust kicked up from the streets, and from high above the stadium, something plummeted with terrifying speed, crashing into the earth like a meteor.
A brilliant white blur landed with a thunderous boom.
Mirko—the Rabbit Hero—had arrived.
Mewtwo, Lemillion, and Revery didn't understand what was happening at first. Then, from beside the supposed pro hero, several figures stepped forward, armed and alert, weapons drawn and aimed toward the city. At the center of them stood Mirko.
She laughed, her voice echoing with a twisted kind of glee.
"Haha! You heroes really think you're saving anyone? I'm not a hero. I'm the villain—Mirko!"
Before she could finish her declaration, Mewtwo activated Agility, instantly doubling his speed. In the blink of an eye—right as she finished saying "the villain Mirko"—he appeared above her, a glowing Shadow Ball forming in his palm.
But what shocked Mewtwo wasn't her speed or strength—it was her awareness.
She saw him coming.
He had moved from an angle where she shouldn't have had any line of sight. Yet somehow, from the corner of her eye, she tracked him perfectly.
As their eyes met, Mewtwo hurled the Shadow Ball without hesitation. He immediately formed a second one and launched it in rapid succession.
Mirko reacted with lightning reflexes. She spun midair, delivering two sharp kicks that struck both Shadow Balls, detonating them in bursts of dark energy. The explosions cracked through the air with heat, but Mirko emerged nearly unfazed. Not only was she still standing—she was smiling.
Still suspended above her, Mewtwo prepared for a follow-up, but Mirko was already setting her legs, preparing to leap toward him. Then, just as her muscles coiled for the jump, her knees buckled beneath her. She dropped to the ground, confused and disoriented.
Revery's Quirk had activated.
Her face shimmered with strange glowing marks, and in a sudden wave, everyone around her—ally and enemy alike—felt their senses spiral. Balance faltered. Vision blurred. Even Mewtwo felt it hit him.
"Oi… this didn't happen on the island. Nejire wasn't affected," Mewtwo complained telepathically, his mental voice slightly strained.
"She was," Revery answered swiftly. "We just trained enough to not fall straight to the ground. She built up a "resistance"—'pseudo-immunity,' enough to keep fighting alongside you."
Mewtwo gave a quick nod, pulling his focus back to Mirko, who was still trying to make sense of what was happening. With his gaze locked on her, he fired two Confusion strikes straight into her mind.
The mental blasts hit their mark.
Mirko's eyes widened as her equilibrium shattered. She dropped face-first into the ground, stunned. Revery immediately deactivated her Quirk, giving Mewtwo a moment to breathe and regain control of his senses.
But Mirko wasn't finished.
She forced herself upright at the moment her control was back, she prepared to charge against the boy. However, a sudden strike to her stomach stopped her cold. The blow came from an angle she hadn't anticipated—from below—and her ears hadn't picked it up until it landed.
The impact wasn't devastating, but it was precise and forceful enough to launch her off the ground. She was lifted upward in a burst of motion she couldn't counter.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mirko saw Mewtwo, his arms fully extended, pulling her upward with a powerful blast of telekinesis. He was using every ounce of his strength to lift her into the air, matching her altitude with raw force.
But in Mirko's mind, that move was a massive mistake—reckless even. From her perspective, he had just entered her ideal attack range. Her instincts kicked in, and she readied a strike.
Yet, as she moved to land the blow, her body betrayed her. Her limbs twisted in the wrong direction. She aimed a kick upward, but her leg snapped downward instead.
Before she could correct her movement, a brilliant energy beam rained down from above and struck her directly. The blast sent her plummeting to the ground.
As she descended, she began regaining control of her body, but it was too late to react. The beam of yellow light already struck and she needed to touch the ground before she could dodge again, otherwise, she could be just a dead weight in the air.
In less than a second, as she still fell from the sky she scanned the battlefield. Four enemies: the feline-like boy, the blonde girl, the one attacking from underground, and now, someone in the sky—another new element.
Her eyes locked on the cat-like boy. He raised his arm and sliced it through the air in an arc. At that gesture, five enormous stones launched toward her with violent force. If they landed now, she'd be in a bad position. She spun midair, using her momentum to twist out of their path.
She dodged them—barely.
But what came next caught her completely off guard. Despite the clean dodge, one of the stones smashed into her side, hurling her straight into the ground.
"How?!" she gasped, slamming a fist into the dirt as she looked for an explanation.
There he was—another kid. This one had massive, shifting tentacles. He'd caught one of the rocks she'd dodged and hurled it like a hammer, slamming it into her while she was vulnerable.
Then, a ripple beneath the ground sent a warning through her instincts.
She tried to jump at the last second. However, her senses and body were sabotaged again, and her body moved straight to the ground, making her do the complete opposite of what she wanted to do.
Her battle-hardened reflexes took over. Once her knees touched the ground she did the opposite of what her disrupted perception told her to do.
Her combat adaptability was second to none. There was a reason she'd climbed to the number five spot after the last incident with the villains.
From the earth below, sharp white spikes erupted violently. One sliced her leg, tearing fabric and drawing blood. She gritted her teeth and kept moving, dodging as best she could, her senses were reversed, and even if she figured it out, she still had problems dodging. The unrelenting onslaught forced her back.
Now in front of her stood a line of six young fighters, staring her down with intense focus. Their eyes didn't waver. They didn't shake. And shockingly, they were holding her at bay.
Even the villains to the side had their jaws hanging open, stunned at the sight of these kids pushing back a top-ranked hero.
Snapping out of their daze, the armed villains aimed their weapons at the children—but couldn't pull the triggers.
That's when Mewtwo acted. With both hands extended, he grasped the weapons telekinetically—not the entire gun, just the triggers and barrels. He locked the mechanisms in a telekinetic tug-of-war against the villains' fingers.
With a focused burst of strength, he won. The weapons twisted and snapped in their hands. Many were rendered useless—though a few further back managed to fire from beyond his telekinetic reach.
But Mewtwo wasn't alone. In a flash, Wendigo and Suneater jumped in, shielding the rest of the group. Their quirks blocked the incoming shots, stopping bullets infused with a strange, slime-like substance. These weren't standard rounds, they were made to trap people.
Mirko, still catching her breath, watched the kids with a raised eyebrow—and then a grin.
They were good. Surprisingly good. Two of them she even recognized from the day the pro heroes Raided the villain nest so, Why were they here? Weren't they licensed already? She pushed the thought aside. It wasn't her concern right now.
What did matter was this: six young fighters now stood as a living barrier between her and the rescue site, and all of them had absurd teamwork, not something just kids should have.
They'd done their job well. All the damage was contained to the space in front of them. The terrain behind them, where the injured or civilians likely were, remained untouched.
These kids had put on a real show.
"Well done, young heroes," she said with a crooked grin, wiping blood from her leg. "Now let's see if you can handle a counterattack."
Without wasting another second, she dashed toward the nearest one—the boy with the tentacles. But suddenly, her movement slowed slightly. Not from hesitation, but from the weighted protectors she wore to avoid hurting the kids too much.
Except now… those weights felt heavier. Much heavier.