Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 9:22:39 GMT -4
VLOG: Sinking Faith credited to Kyoukon
The video opens to the host, giving the camera a stern glare. She holds it for a few seconds before beginning. “Well. This wasn’t how I expected to kick off a vlog series, but the hero life is always full of surprises! Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard what’s going on at Semper Fi. The military’s been researching how to fit people with quirks into their operations, and they’ve put some of the results online. Apparently, this was a big thing over at Yūei, and they volunteered a bunch of their students to take part. This here is a recording of a rescue simulation for them.”
The video cuts to a multi-camera night vision setup, similar to a security feed. Together, they observed six sparsely-dressed students. At least, none of them looked like adults. They were on the move, attempting to find each other on a rapidly sinking ship. Emi provided an explanation over the participants calling for each other. “This is all just a practice exercise. Looks and feels dangerous, but I’m assuming there were people on standby to pull anybody out if things got really bad. Not that these guys needed it. Look at them go!” One camera expanded to fill the screen, showing a tall blonde sprinting through the hallways. While the night vision made it easy for the viewers to see, one could safely assume that the ‘heroes’ had trouble seeing where they were going. All but one of them, anyway – while the rest stumbled and shouted to find each other, the girl almost seemed to have a sixth sense leading her to her goal. She crossed paths with another girl along the way, and the two rushed towards their goal.
“I did some noseying into Yūei’s student roster so I could put faces to names. That’s Kusanagi Kanna of Class 1-A, who must have eyes like a hawk to move through that, until…” A gate slammed shut to block the girls off. “That’s a bit weird, isn’t it? This is meant to be a sinking ship exercise. Why would gates be blocking off when the ship is already going down? I guess it could be to try and slow the water, but it would be a bit too late for that, and it’s stopping the survivors from getting out.”
Meanwhile, her peers were still getting their bearings. The video changed to show different parts of the ship in quick succession. A white-haired girl feeling up the wall, a purple-haired one trying to shout her way to her comrades. Two boys partially deciphering the directions, not knowing that the locked door had made them useless. “Tall and Taller over there are Takahashi Kaling and Takeuchi Masaki. Both 1-B, showing off their problem solving skills. They were on the right track, too! Obviously, in my room with a computer and all the time in the world, I can easily crack Morse Code, but these guys made a good effort with no time, no help, and at least a little bit of panic.”
By the time the focus was on the girls again, one of them had stepped forward to try and get through the door. A hand on the door was enough for her to blast through it, making a crawl space for the pair. “Not that these girls are letting some dumb metal door stop them. Miss Explosions-For-Hands there is Sakamoto Rowan – also 1-A. No idea what her quirk is, but she’s got enough power to make an opening through thick metal, but enough control to keep the range small. Pretty impressive, right?” Kanna seemed to agree, if her smirk was anything to go by.
The video switched to showing multiple cameras as the students began to meet up. Some showed the students at work, while others showed more of the doors being slammed shut, one right in front of Rowan. Shortly after, the focus was on the white-haired one, who was shouting hints to the rest of the would-be rescuers. She’d cracked the Morse Code, not with knowledge, but with critical thinking. “That silver vixen is Bijan Lani, 1-B. I don’t think we’ve seen any of that class’ quirks in action here, but they’re doing really well just by listening to each other. They managed to build on the information each of them learned to succeed! …Or, you know, they would have succeeded, if the military didn’t keep blocking the way!”
Multiple cameras showed the team attempting to regroup, but just as the girls were about to meet up, the video abruptly cut to black. Two seconds later, Emi’s face took the stage, and she didn’t look pleased. “That’s it. The stream just stopped there. I have no idea why. There haven’t been any reports about Yūei students dying, so it’s not like they were trying to cover up a student dying or anything. I don’t know how the mission ended, but I want to find out. Besides that, though, notice the length of that video? A few minutes, at best. Now, I’d skipped the lady giving instructions so we could get to the action, but she told the rescuers they had a whole ten minutes before the floor they were on went under. At the speed the water was going up in the video? There’s no way they had ten minutes.”
“So the military lied to the rescuers. No big deal, right? Things go wrong all the time in rescue missions, so the rescuers were just teaching them a lesson about real life. That’s what I told myself at first, but then-“ A series of cuts replayed the doors being shut, several of them blocking the students’ (and villain’s) progress. “I checked this out again. See, those Morse Code instructions? They were supposed to lead to the lower levels, where the heroes needed to go. And they would have, if the doors didn’t start blocking the path. That’s the part that really confused me. Why would the mission involve instructions to go somewhere, only for the instructors to block the way anyway? Wouldn’t that just make the instructions useless?” Her expression darkened. “Or maybe… the guys in charge really didn’t want the people taking part to get to the second level. That would explain the wrong time and the doors, right? The military put a bunch of half-trained teenagers in a military-grade rescue simulation, and when it started looking like they might actually beat it, they tried making it impossible for them! What the hell is up with that?!”
She paused to regain herself, though it was only a partially successful effort. Her face showed irritation, but her tone was just as passionate as ever. “I really think that’s it. The military wanted these guys to fail, and realised they couldn’t do that without sabotaging the whole thing. That’s why the video cut off – they knew they’d have a shitstorm on their hands if they video’d themselves straight up trapping a bunch of students for the hell of it. The only thing I don’t understand is… why? What do they get out of this? Scaring or hurting a bunch of schoolkids? Nah. There’s more to this story, and it doesn’t look like the guys at Semper Fi want to tell. That’s why we need to demand answers. They think if they stay quiet this’ll all blow over, but that’s not happening if we have anything to say about it! Make sure your friends see this video, or at least the stream! I’ll put a link to the full video in the description, even if all the important stuff is here. Don’t let Semper Fi get away with this… whatever the hell this is! And support these poor students, working against the odds! They volunteered to help the military, and look how they were treated in return! You’re not going to let them get away with bullying the next generation, are you?”
She leaned back in her chair, letting out a heavy sigh. “Whatever this is, it’s a mess. But at least one good thing came out of it. These students… are pretty good at their job already, and Yūei hasn’t even been open for long. They managed to stay calm and smart the whole time, and worked together to do their job. It makes me a little excited, knowing that I’m about to join them. Here’s hoping Yūei’s finest keep shining. Until next time, stay super!”
