A female with bunny ears and tan skin stood before a door, silent and unmoving as an unknown amount of time passed.
This, of course, was Rumi.
With her expression as blank as always, the only sign of life she presented was her ears slightly twitching every so often.
It wasn't for show either. It was a natural response due to what she was hearing right now.
Grunts, heavy breaths and strained gasps for air.
She stared at the door as though she could peer through it, until she raised her hand, grabbing the handle.
-CLICK
Pushing the door forward, not even blinking as the scene before her was unveiled.
Inside the room was a green-eyed boy with messy jet black hair, on his hands and knees as he sweated profusely, breathing heavily.
He looked up as he witnessed the girl, his halted breath despite his exhaustion evidence of his confusion.
"Rumi? What's wrong?" Rin asked, rising to his feet as he wiped the sweat from his chin.
"What were you doing in here?" She asked, in her typical monotone voice.
Raising his eyebrow, after a second, Rin answered, not thinking much of it.
"Just exercising. Turns out push-ups are harder than they look. Who knew?" His words sounded like an attempt at humour, but his eyebrows knitted in annoyance as he stared at his wasted pool of sweat.
"I see," Rumi replied after a few seconds, increasing Rin's curiosity.
However, his expression slowly softened as the realisation dawned on him.
"Oh? Oh. Oh!"
Rin facepalmed himself rushing to rid her of any suspicion.
"I'm not a pervert. I'm just surprised you're so energetic considering how you were yesterday."
Upon hearing this, Rin paused as he regained his composure.
"Ah, I see. Well, no need to worry. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine. I guess your words helped, huh?" He gave a thumbs-up.
But Rumi continued to stare. She didn't remember saying anything that would have such a positive effect on him.
"Anyway, I don't suppose you can lend me a hand here. You seem to be more in shape than I am."
Rumi watched as Rin lowered himself, falling into form. But before he could even start.
"Your elbows are too flared out. You'll hurt yourself that way. Stick your feet together and bring your chest to the ground."
Rin silently adjusted these mistakes as he finally went in, barely pushing himself off the ground.
"That's a lot harder."
"Because it's the right way. Why does a nerd like you have a sudden interest in exercising anyway?" She asked as Rin headed to his closet to find a change of clothes.
"Can't a guy randomly decide one day he wants to get into shape for no particular reason?"
Surprisingly, Rumi nodded as she turned to leave.
"That's good. There are a lot of benefits to it, not just physically but mentally too."
She was obviously referring to his off state yesterday, to which he could helplessly sigh inwardly.
'I promise, I really am better.'
"Alright, enjoy. Keep it up. I hope you the best."
"Alright, thanks." Rin thanked her genuinely, watching her leave. But as she did, he continued to stare, a blank expression masking his face.
'Do you really mean that…or are you an empty shell telling lies?'
***
"Where is he?"
Outside the mansion, Rin scoured his surroundings with his eyes. Sitting on the bench he was usually seen at, he turned to a familiar bench not too far from him.
'He's missing.'
He thought, noticing the absence of a man with long blonde hair.
Or in other words, Daren.
That was his name.
'I know this much. Everyone does. He was basically our version of Dion before she arrived here. But he slowly turned from an extroverted individual to what he is now. A quiet man who preferred to be alone.'
And because everyone respected him, they all chose to respect his wishes.
'I need to make sure he won't be someone I have to worry about. He quite literally has the ability to stop everything I'm planning before it's even started.'
"Are you listening to me?"
Rin turned his head as he met eyes with Dion who leaned in. Rumi sat beside him, also staring, looking down at a notebook as she jotted things down every now and then.
But Rin didn't answer. Instead, he gazed back at Dion.
"What are the Evaluations like?" He asked as Dion paused, taken aback for a moment as she blinked.
It was a sudden change of subject and because it was Rin of all people who was responsible for it, it caused her to be surprised.
"I guess you wouldn't know, huh? Well, I'm definitely not a fan of being poked and prodded every day. But once you get used to it, it isn't hard to force yourself through it." She shrugged after taking a second to think about it.
"When I first arrived, Ms Ino had me show a demonstration of my Quirk. After she had a good idea of it, it became more…boring."
"Ms Ino usually assigns evaluations in sequences. We expect to be following a routine of performing the same moves with our Quirks for days, sometimes even weeks. So much so that my Swordsmanship has become a little stale." She joked.
Rin nodded in understanding.
He knew enough about Quirks to know they were similar to a muscle. The more you worked it out, strained it and pushed its limits, the stronger it would get.
'But in this case, they have the Nulled perform opposite from this repetitively. This paired with the fact that Ms Ino and especially Renji encouraged the Nulled to not use their Quirks carelessly, it's enough to give the Illusion of a weak Quirk due to Quirknull. In reality, they were just bad at using it.'
But why?
If the Quirknull wasn't a real thing, these evaluations weren't really a means to discover a cure for it.
So Rin could only wonder what exactly was their aim with this?
"But those rules don't usually apply to our prodigy here," Dion smirked as she nudged Rumi who remained silent.
Rin, seeing this, raised an eyebrow.
"Now that I think about it, your guys' Quirks seem wildly different despite you being siblings." He voiced his curiosity.
The more he questioned these things, the more he realised he didn't really know much about either of them.
His previous self never asked questions, like a robot only programmed to speak when spoken to.
"That's only half the truth. Those long ears and juicy legs are only one part of this girl's Quirk. Ms Ino suspects her of having two!" Dion exclaimed like an excited mother.
"Two? That's pretty impressive." He turned to Rumi as he admitted. But he only gained a slight nod from her.
'Jeez…It didn't take me long to figure it out, but her case seems to be one of the more severe ones.'
He could never tell what she was thinking, or if she had any thoughts to begin with.
She barely spoke and the only reason Rin was acquainted with her was because she was related to Dion.
'Ms Ino is the one who first dubbed her 'The Prodigy'. She holds Rumi in high regard. It could explain why her chains are tighter.'
Rin stared at her from the corner of his eye.
He and Ollie were the only two to free their minds and they both had to endure nightmarish events to do so.
He couldn't replicate that with Rumi nor did he really want to…
"What do you think you'd do…"
But that didn't mean he didn't want to try.
"If you could be free?"
Dion and Rumi turned to silently stare at Rin.
"You know, if you didn't have this disease weighing you down and you had free rein to do whatever."
Rumi blinked, and as she did, she soon shrugged.
"I'm not sure. I've never really thought about it. I guess I'd do just that. Be free."
Rin heard this, inwardly sighing.
'Not the best answer, but I'll take it.'
And with this thought, he raised his hand in a thumbs-up, a wide smile blessing his face.
"Me too. With all the freedom in the world, I'd be free. Only with freedom of that magnitude can one truly be free, you know?"
Rumi opened her mouth for a second but no words came out. Eventually, they did as she seemingly gave up.
"I respect it. Freedom frees the free. So be free." She replied, also giving a thumbs up.
Rin nodded passionately.
'I'm no better than her. I don't exactly know what freedom is so I don't necessarily crave it. What drives me at the moment is nothing more than survival. But…I'll try.'
'I'll try to break her chains, maybe even the others, without having to go through all that…I'd do the same for Isagi.'
"What?" Rin, his smile fading, raised an eyebrow as he witnessed Dion staring at him with a straight expression, her lips slightly apart.
"Oh…nothing. It's just the first time I've seen you smile."
He knew it was his first time doing so. In his mind, it might have helped emphasise his point a bit more.
To this, he shrugged.
"Aren't you the one who taught us that smiling is like a ray of white light amid darkness? Like that particular Hero…um, All Mighty?" Rin struggled to find the name, turning to Rumi for assistance.
"She mentioned he was tall. I'm pretty sure it was All Height."
"It's All Might. Jeez, you guys really don't listen to what I say."
"Everybody, it's time for your evaluations."
Ms Ino and Renji stepped out from the mansion like usual. In the next second, Renji leaned over to whisper something in her ear before leaving.
"I'll be right back."
Rin hopped to his feet, but before he could get far…
"Wait."
Rin turned, witnessing Rumi toss her notebook at him, which he promptly caught.
"What's this?"
"It's a workout plan I quickly scribbled out in a way a nerd like you would understand. It should be enough for a beginner."
Rumi stood to turn away as Rin slowly continued to look down then to her.
"Wow…thanks a lot, Rumi."
She merely shrugged, walking away.
'Maybe there is something inside her after all…'
He pondered. But before he could spend any more time on this, his eyes followed along with Renji as he left.
"Mr Renji!"
Renji turned back, only to find Rin before him.
"Zenin? What is it?" He asked, an unamused expression on his face as he raised an eyebrow.
"I just wanted to ask you something. Considering I miss breakfast every day and you make the schedules for our meals, I don't suppose you could extend breakfast times? 7:40 AM is a little too early to be ending breakfast, don't you think?"
Rin watched as Renji's expression twisted in annoyance, betraying his usual strict stoicism the more the boy talked.
"You see, between my studies which sometimes result in me sleeping late, I…"
"Are you honestly wasting my time with this?" Renji interrupted him, turning to him fully.
"Who do you think you are? Let me tell you something, boy. Every living being in this world is born with one thing. Worth. Whether they are born with that worth or it's something that comes about later in life, in your case, it doesn't matter."
"You are one of the few to be left less than a human by the Quirknull. Quite literally, you are worthless. So don't you…"
Renji paused as he blinked, realising how close to the boy he was.
Clearing his throat, he took a step back, all while Rin, his head jerked back, wide-eyed with his jaw dropped, stared.
"I…was just hungry…" Rin mumbled.
"As I was saying, your request has been denied. Managing your sleep schedule and putting effort into waking in the morning might do some good for your discipline and work ethic."
Upon saying this with his default stoic expression and flat tone, he turned to walk toward the gate.
'Jeez Louise. Talk about an outburst. He's known to have a short fuse but I've only seen him snap once, not quite as badly as that.'
It also seemed like his outburst was enough to make him spill how he truly felt.
'But no matter…'
Rin looked back, seeing the last Nulled follow Ms Ino inside the mansion, leaving the outside quiet with him alone.
'There's no one here to see. I don't know how many times I'll have this perfect chance, but I'd better take it while I can.'
Rin took a deep breath as he felt his heartbeat start to increase in speed.
Bending his legs, his eyes focused on Renji who stood before the large gate.
It was now. Now he went.
'Let's do this!'