Three figures appear. Nokori and Rinko ran to the flanks and Nahashi faced the enemy upfront and was currently at the lead. Her legs blur together from her speed and upon reaching the target, she stumbled back and launched her foot into a high kick. Nokori at the side outstretched his hands in an attempt to keep Zero in place.

The kick landed on the back of Nokori's head as Zero took a step back.

Nokori scrambled away with a squeak and Nahashi jumped forward.

Zero moved behind a bent over Nokori and gave a quick wave to Nahashi. "Yoohoo! I'm right here." 

Nokori recovered and stood up, then Nahashi's next punch landed straight to his nose. He cried out, visible tears flying off his eyes.

"Oh? Is your target me or is it actually your poor classmate?"

Nokori held onto his broken nose, blood dripping down his face. Shinichi tossed a healing vial to his head. Still, he was pretty resilient, for a non-mana consumer to take a hit from a mana consumer.

There was no rhyme nor reason to the hits. Nahashi swung there, kicked there. Nokori was jumping and moving his head around, not knowing what to do, mouth shaped over a vial. 

"Is this it?" taunted Zero. The students whirled around to find Zero at their back. "Are you guys actually training to be hunters? You'd be on the ground right now if not for Mr. Janitor over here."

Zero moved as if to attack them. Nokori and Nahashi flinched. Zero shook her head and chuckled.

"What's wrong?" Zero's smile turned wicked. "I'm not allowed to touch you, remember?"

Nokori blinked dumbly at the air, looking miserable with his barely healed injuries. Nahashi panted hot angry breaths.

"Tsk, tsk, look at you two," Zero shook her head at their appearances. "Oh, I have a fun idea! Why don't we test your speed?" she said, turning her back to the two.

"Don't run off too far away!" echoed Shinichi's voice, sounding faint as Zero zoomed away.

"Hey!" Nahashi growled and went after Zero with a reluctant Nokori on her side.

Rinko dazedly followed them with her gaze. She groaned. "I walked miles before arriving here! Just standing straight is killing my feet!" She plopped down, arms crossed.

Shinichi approached her, mouth slightly agape, his stare cold and unwavering.

Looking at her closely, Shinichi couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity. As though looking at a mirror, he spotted glimpses of himself in Rinko. Perhaps because they're both pretty?

Rinko looked up when Shinichi's shadow cast over her. "What?"

"You didn't join the battle earlier, why is that?" asked Shinichi, a hand on his chin.

Rinko only shrugged in exasperation. "You saw Nokori's face, right? I'd rather not end up like that."

There was a loud boom from where the three were exchanging blows (or dodging for Zero's part). Nahashi's fist was scraped red from when she threw her hand at Zero, only to hit the tree behind her. An oval shaped groove made itself home on its trunk.

Shinichi hummed and nodded. "True, true," he said. "What about your ability? I'm guessing you're waiting for an opportunity to utilise it later…"

Rinko averted her gaze. "That's…" she cleared her throat. Her fingers curled on the dead grass, soil catching on her nails. She resolutely trained her eyes on her hands. "I mean, using it against another human isn't appropriate."

The thumb kneading his chin stopped. Not appropriate… could it be a powerful ability?

At a young age, typically they wouldn't be able to achieve great feats of strength, unable to further nourish their ability until they're body has fully developed itself even if they consumed mana since birth. Even so, such a thing wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. The Deathless Warrior has been recorded to already be a nightmare on the battlefield at the young age of 14. Though using abilities for the exam shouldn't be a problem when they have an abundant amount of healing vials at their disposal. Yet if Rinko deemed it unsuitable for this occasion… perhaps it was strong enough to injure Zero greatly that even vials weren't enough to heal her.

Shinichi's eyes shined brightly as he observed Rinko. Such an ability would be interesting to nourish.

Rinko licked her lips, uneasiness painting itself on her features. "What's wrong?"

Shinichi gave a sunny smile. "Nothing. I'll come back to my tree. And your teammates seem to be on their way here as well."

Rinko scrambled to stand as three figures sped through her. The rush of wind blew her hair, pieces of it slapping her on the face.

"Stop running away, gods dammit!" barked Nahashi.

Zero cackled. "That's literally my job right now!"

Using her momentum, Nahashi hurled a punch.

"Clumsy," Zero smiled. She stepped to the side and watched as Nahashi lost her footing.

Nokori grabbed her arm and steadied her.

"Such lacklustre skill. You say you want to be as great as the Puppeteer or even the Deathless Warrior? At this rate, you might have to repeat the year. Don't want to fail the exam now, do you?"

Nahashi glared at her. "You'll regret saying that! I'll totally kick your ass!"

"I'd like to see you--" Her fist flew to the side. When Zero opened her palm, two yellow marble-sized explosives were on her hand. Zero looked down on it, puzzled. "What? This hasn't even been activated."

The one who threw it, Rinko, only shrugged. "I don't want to hurt you…"