Mari almost seemed determined to rub Yasu up the wrong way in every way possible. Now she had gone from being rude over tardiness to being overly concerned with the possibility of sabotage of all things on the part of the others. Granted, Yasu could not fault her on the mere idea of thinking they would be mean spirited enough to try. Goodness knew Yasu had faced enough such pettiness at Nosaka, and she didn't exactly have a great deal of faith in people to behave appropriately. What she did have faith in was everyone's dedication to getting their own task done. Even the most selfish jackasses here would surely not be so stupid as to get in their way when they had a timed assessment of their own to complete. Adding to that what Kai raised, Yasu was quite sure they wouldn't have to worry about anyone sabotaging them. Of more concern was whether Mari would interpret any encounters with other groups as a potential threat and act accordingly. The last thing she wanted was to be dragged into a fight over Mari's paranoia. She certainly hoped Mari wasn't the type to engage in pre-emptive strikes.

[color=0076a3]"Yeah, I agree."[/color] Yasu said as Kai questioned who would be dumb enough to try and sabotage them. She shot him a knowing glance as he looked at her, communicating that they were more or less of the same mind on this issue. Otherwise, it seemed they were both happy for her to climb trees to aid in their search. At least she had a plan of action now. Otherwise all she might have been able to do was to amble down the path and hope to catch a glimpse of something useful.

[color=0076a3]"No, not really."[/color] Yasu told Kai upon him asking a question. [color=0076a3]"I used to climb around buildings, like you, back when I was a kid. Then I did some rock climbing before coming here, among other things. Nothing special. But I don't think I'll have any trouble getting up the trees."[/color]

But it would hardly matter whether she could climb trees or not, as a distant explosion signified the forest was on fire. Not only that, but it seemed it was on fire in the direction they were supposed to go in. As the text went out, it became apparent this was all part of the test. [color=0076a3]"You have got to be kidding me."[/color] Yasu spoke aloud, her annoyance apparent. Yasu couldn't stand this sort of "hidden test" nonsense. Here they were at a school, and they had chosen to [i]not[/i] do the one thing they were supposed to at a school, and tell them what they were supposed to do. Instead it appeared they wanted to make this like a secret test of character or whatever. It was a load of horseshit as far as Yasu was concerned and it only served to make her opinion of the staff sink lower. She could just imagine them after this test waggling their fingers and saying [i]"You should have figured out what to do! A real hero does this, that, and this!"[/i] She could also imagine herself kicking them in their smug little necks.

The addition of whatever that roaring sound was only made it all the more annoying. Now there might be some great secret threat out there they were supposed to fight. But how could she possibly be sure if they would not say it. All she could do was sit here and guess and have faith that their test was structured fairly. That was faith she did not have.

[color=0076a3]"Come on, let's catch up with Haruishi."[/color] Yasu said to Kai. [color=0076a3]"Hey, wait up! We need to discuss this!"[/color] She called out to Mari, who was a touch ahead of them. She gestured for them all to gather around to talk. [color=0076a3]"Alright, I know you both might be thinking time is of the essence, but there's a damn fire out there, and we need to think this through before we act. I've got some things to say about this ominous text thing they've sent us and we need to figure out what we're doing for real."[/color] She then took a deep breath before continuing.

[color=0076a3]"Going purely off the words at face value, it seems like they're suggesting that proceeding with the rescue as originally put to us isn't what we're supposed to do. That said, they haven't said that we're not supposed to go out there at all, at least not explicitly. Now I really have [i]no idea[/i] what they actually expect from us, but given how they just proposed working together wouldn't affect our grades, I think the whole point of this test [i]may[/i] be specifically to encourage teamwork."[/color] Yasu had never been the type to follow heroes religiously, but she had certainly heard the tired old wishy washy nonsense about heroes being paragons of virtue that worked for justice and the common good. It would be typical of an overly idealistic school to give them a task aimed at teaching them some pithy lesson about how good it was to work with your fellow students rather than against them. The thought of co-operation did not offend Yasu so much as the fact that they might be trying to make a really dumb point about it. [color=0076a3]"With that in mind, I think our priority should be to actually work with the others to fight the fires and whatever else is out there, and not to go snatching up whatever designated dummies are out there for us before the time limit. It's pretty clear they don't expect us to do nothing more than what they claimed to want from us originally, if nothing else. Any other ideas?"[/color] Frankly, Yasu would have loved nothing more than to be told she was dead wrong at this point and for a simpler course of action to be proposed. 

But she had a horrifying feeling she might be right.

[@Light Lord] [@Stern Algorithm]

[hider=tl;dr]
Yasu says some things and then finds the new situation for their test distinctly distasteful. She then huddles with her team and suggests that the whole point of the test might be to encourage them to work together.
[/hider]