Titanium Soul

[CHAPTER 3]: Organon

Organon (n): an instrument of thought or knowledge


Mei Hatsume could safely say she hadn't started her day expecting to add Miracle Girl to the ranks of Hatsume Industries (now numbering three, including herself).

Now, certain arguments could be made - namely that to refer to her gang of madmen as an actual company was demeaning to the Support Item Industry as a whole - or that moniker of "Miracle Girl" was, while accurate, not the appropriate way to refer to one's newest business partner. Regardless, her current situation was a very welcome surprise.

It began (as many things did) in a fancy restaurant, empty plates pushed aside in favor of blueprints spread across the table. Yaoyorozu's eyes scanned one particular blueprint, committing it to memory even as she verbally duelled with Mei.

"Eighteen blueprints and 15% of Hatsume Industries"

"Hatsume Industries isn't even real. Thirty blueprints spread out across three weeks."

"I'm in the process of filling out the paperwork-"

"You mean, getting me to fill out the paperwork."

"Yeah, same thing. Give it like a month and we're golden. Anyways, twenty percent of the company and forty designs over three weeks, given that when used in public they bear our logo."

"Mei, when did we get a logo?"

She blinked. "What are you talking about? We've always had a logo."

"Mei, we're not using that drawing I made when I was six."

"Well if you didn't want to use it you could have just changed it."

"WAIT, THAT'S WHAT I FILED AS OUR LOGO?"

"Yep."

"MEI, WHAT HAVE YOU-"

Yaoyorozu cleared her throat. "Thirty percent of the company as soon as its official, and eight designs a week for six weeks, with the appropriate logos when possible."

Mei quickly counted on her fingers. "So 48 designs total… we can do that." She stuck out her hand. "Deal."

Yaoyorozu grinned and shook it. "I'll have my legal team send you a paper contract with the terms later this week."

She lifted her hand and, with a flare of Creation, a brain-sized lump of graphene and silicon appeared in it. She set it down on the table with a thump.

Mei drooled.

"Oh my god you actually made it - OH JESUS YAOYOROZU NOT IN PUBLIC!"

Yaoyorozu blinked. "Well, you said you wanted it as soon as possible."

"I mean yeah, but there are people who would massacre small nations for that kind of technology; you can't just plop it down on the table like that."

She shrugged. "My bodyguards are the best in the country."

"Well I'm glad I no longer have a body because I would have definitely had a heart attack just then. Let's just… go back to the garage before we're all murdered, please?"


Yaoyorozu stepped into the Hatsume Workshop and simply stared. It was a room that had at one point been a garage, but was now home to a highly advanced laboratory/workshop that violated at least eighteen OSHA regulations she could name off the top of her head - and she'd barely even skimmed that rulebook.

"So… this is where we're working?"

Mei nodded. Yaoyorozu rolled up her sleeves and Created mechanic's gloves directly onto her hands. "Alright, what's first?"

Mei blinked. "Wait, you're still here?"

Yaoyorozu nodded slowly. "I'm not just going to let you run off with a supercomputer to do god knows what."

Mei nodded. "Alright then, Miracle Girl, since Zuzu doesn't have arms, you get to play lab assistant. Bring me the box labelled 'scrap' and a set of wrenches."

Yaoyorozu's eyes swept the workshop. "Which one?"

Mei shrugged. "Ask Zuzu, he's the one who cleaned up last."

"He's been dead for over two weeks, Hatsume."

"Well, you can still ask him."

"I think the one you're looking for is between the nuclear flytrap and the self-stirring crucible."


Mei cracked her fingers and plugged a cable into the back of her hastily upgraded desktop computer.


[NEW DEVICE DETECTED]

Are you sure you want to move "justwakeupalreadyizuku(43).exe" to the new device?

Y / N

[TRANSFERRING FILES: COMPLETE]
[-|-|-|-|-|-|-]


She bit her lip and slid her chair across the room, to another monitor. This one was plugged into a terrifying metal approximation of a human skull, complete with silicon brain and glowing green eyes.


INITIALIZING "justwakeupalreadyizuku(43).exe"

Would you like to import user preferences?

Y / N


"Whoops."


[PROGRAM FILES: RETRIEVED]
[-|-|-|-|-|-|-]

INITIALIZING NEURAL EMULATOR . . . . . . . . . . . EMULATOR RUNNING


Izuku awoke to the peculiar feeling that his brain was working faster than it had any right to. It was not something he'd ever felt before, but he found he rather enjoyed it. He grinned - and felt something like muscles moving.

Yaoyorozu spoke first. "Alright can you just… never do that again until we actually give you a face please?"

He blinked. "Well excuse me- WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY VOICE!? WHY DO I HAVE A BRITISH ACCENT!?"

Mei shrugged flippantly. "Probably just the default of the text to speech program I pirated."

"Oh my god this is the program they use for the voiceovers for those awful MLG videos isn't it."

"Maaaaaaaaaaybe."

"And- oh god you set the user preferences to default didn't you? That's why I feel so weird."

Mei glared at him. "Well maybe you're just a heathen who likes inverted mouse controls."

"Look, they just make more sense to me, okay?"

Yaoyorozu nodded. "Not gonna lie, that's pretty weird."

"Well, personal preferences aside let's see if the mobility protocols work on this thing."

At the base of his neck, a set of vaguely spider-like legs unfolded and lifted him off the table.

Yaoyorozu shuddered. "I'm really starting to regret wanting to be here right now."

Mei waved her off. "What are you talking about? This is the cutest baby I've ever made!"

He very carefully didn't grin as he removed the plug from the base of his neck and hopped off the table. "Alright, judging by how much power that just used I should have anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes of battery power, depending on how active I am… how's your solution to the power issue looking?"

She smirked. "It's nothing before the full might of Hatsume Industries!"

"So a few more weeks. That's fine, we're not on a super tight schedule." He turned to Yaoyorozu. "Give me a few minutes to get used to being able to move again before we start working on giving me a face?"


"Hey Mei, why do you have an entire crate of audio cassettes up here?"

"Because you have good ideas when you mutter and I can't write fast enough to keep up."

"You've been recording me for… how long exactly?"

"The past eight years, give or take six months."

"Well… I guess I can run these through a natural learning program and get my own voice back."

"I dunno, the current voice is kinda endearing."

"Mei I am not using the lowest budget text-to-speech software ever conceived by man- which you still felt the need to pirate, might I add- for actual Hero work. It's not happening."

"Well, I guess you can go ahead and do that if you want."

"I will, as a matter of fact."


As the deft and nimble fingers of Mei and Yaoyorozu assembled his face, Izuku took the time to browse the internet and catch up with his hero forum accounts.

MESSAGE: My name is Rei, and I died thirty years ago. Forward this message to eight other people, or my Quirk, "Cursed Legacy", will kill you…

Joke's on you, replied Izuku. I'm already dead. Us ghosts really must stick together, though. Are you up for tea sometime?

MESSAGE: Hey man, I saw this article and I know you have some strong opinions on the subject… (1 attachment: )

Oh, a local Quirkless Rights Activist group? A little late for him, but progress nonetheless. He was glad the issue was finally getting the attention it deserved.

MESSAGE: Request for Hero Analysis on Pro Hero Snipe

He hummed thoughtfully. Normally these kinds of requests were from fans of the hero or students assigned projects, but you couldn't be too careful these days. After carefully checking the rest of the account, he figured it was the latter. He directed the kid to some of the more reputable hero sources with a gentle reminder that plagiarism is illegal.


"Hey, Mei." It had taken the better part of two months for the program to process all the audio files, and Izuku was relishing in actually having his own voice again. "Remember what today is?"

Mei blinked and turned to her calendar. "...July 4? Oh, right."

Yaoyorozu tilted her head. "Midoriya, do you celebrate American Independence Day?"

He shook his head, which was the entirety of his body at that point anyways. "My face is attached, I actually have my voice, and I have enough battery life to make the trip. Looks like we're finally doing this."

Mei nodded sadly. Yaoyorozu looked confused. "What… what is today?"

"It's my mom's birthday. We need to tell her."

Mei pouted. "We could always wait until we have your full body-"

"No. We're doing this, Mei."

Yaoyorozu blinked. "You mean you still haven't told your mother about this? Doesn't she think you're dead?"

"Yeah, which is why we need to do this as soon as possible. We wait any longer and we'll have to waterproof me before heading out."

She looked mystified. "Waterproofing?"

Mei shrugged and slid a large metal case down from a high shelf. "Mrs. Midoriya is one hell of a crier." She flipped it open and patted the inside. "C'mon Zuzu, get in so the police don't try to arrest me again."


Katsuki Bakugo could safely say he hadn't started his day expecting to come face-to-face with the disembodied head of his three-months-dead friend.

Now, certain arguments could be made - namely that, rather than simply being a disembodied head, it was technically just a head-shaped block of metal that was absolutely convinced it was Izuku Midoriya.

It began, as many things did, with a collision. He was carrying three boxes of papers, stacked on top of eachother and blocking his view. He wasn't some kind of weakling, though, so he didn't stop or put one down. He cursed as the tower toppled forwards, half-burying the unfortunate soul who was in front of him.

He cursed louder upon seeing who, exactly, he had run into. The pink dreads, soot-stained face, ridiculous goggles on her forehead - and oh did he have words for her.

"Three months," he seethed. "Your so-called best friend has been dead for three months and just now you're coming to visit Auntie?"

Hatsume blinked questioningly. "Well, I've been kind of busy-"

Small sparks crackled dangerously in the palms of his hands. "Busy doing what, gearfucker?"

A cruel smirk spread across her face as she rose back to her feet. "That's none of your business, asshole."

"None of my business?" he laughed derisively. "None of my business? I spent years bullying my friend trying to get him to save him-fucking-self, and then you waltzed in, filled his head with your stupid bullshit and now he's fucking dead because of you- so yeah, I think it is my fucking business; knowing what you thought was so important you couldn't spare ten minutes when Auntie Inko was crying her fucking heart out!"

Her eyes narrowed. "Oh, I killed him? If my memory serves me correctly, you were the one he was trying to-"

"Hatsume. That's enough." He just then noticed the tall, dark-haired girl that stood behind Gearfucker. Oh, that bitch.

Bakugo's eyes narrowed even further. "Oh, I see now. You've already gone and replaced him, haven't you? I bet you were glad for an excuse to swap him out for a newer model - maybe even one with a Quirk this time-"

He was interrupted by a hauntingly familiar voice, coming from the box in the hands of Gearfucker 2. "Mei… I think we're going to have to tell him too."

Gearfucker's eyes burned into his own. "You're sure about that, Zuzu? This guy's a jackass."

"Eh, we won't be able to keep it a secret forever and we may as well break it to him while we have Yaoyorozu on hand."

She sighed and lifted the case from Gearfucker 2's hands. "Well, if you insist." She grabbed Katsuki's arm and dragged him down the path to the Midoriya residence. "I really don't like you, Bakugo, but this isn't my choice."

She turned and knocked on the door. It swung open almost immediately. "Back again already, Katsuki?"

Then Auntie noticed Gearfucker.


Mrs. Midoriya had changed since Deku had died. She'd thinned out a little, grown harder. Her eyes, although still easily filled with tears, had a determined tilt to them.

"Mei? How have you been? Who's your friend there? Come in, please! Let me put some tea on."

"Thanks! This is Yaoyorozu, she's been helping me with some stuff. I've been... keeping busy."

She laughed as she walked to the kitchen. "Oh, I bet. What kind of projects have you been working on lately?"

Mei grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, there's only one project for me these days Mrs. Midoriya."

She paused. "Oh? It really must be something, to keep you occupied for more than a week." Her face fell. "I do hope you're still getting out sometimes, it's not healthy being cooped up in that garage for so long."

Mei waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, I'm making sure to get fresh air."

Bakugo scowled impatiently. "Get on with it."

She rolled her eyes and turned back to Mrs. Midoriya. "It's probably going to be easier to show you, so just… try not to freak out please?"

Mrs. Midoriya tilted her head curiously. "I'll do my best, dear."

Mei nodded and, with a flourish, flipped open the case.

Izuku grinned sheepishly. "Hey mom."

Mrs. Midoriya froze, before she sighed and put down the teapot, ignoring Bakugo violently detonating himself in the corner. "I suppose I should have expected this."

Mei blinked. "You should have expected that I saved his life and put him in a machine?"

She shook her head. "Mei, this isn't healthy. You can't just… run his life through a computer program, stick it in a metal head with his face, and call it Izuku."

Mei waved her hands frantically. "No no no, I know that, that's not what we did! I took brain scans and made a neural emulator and everything! It's the digital equivalent of performing a brain transplant except it works."

Mrs. Midoriya closed her eyes and turned to Yaoyorozu. "You look like a sensible girl, Yaoyorozu. Please, try to convince her-"

Yaoyorozu shook her head. "I went over all her work. It checks out."

Mrs. Midoriya stared into her eyes. "Truly?"

Yaoyorozu nodded.

She sat down heavily, and slowly, finally looked at the head in the box. "Izuku, honey?"

He smiled shyly. "Yeah, mom?"

Water pooled in her eyes. "I never got to tell you this, but… you were really cool back there."

At that moment, Bakugo found his words again. And apparently felt the need to let everyone in the building know it.

"FUCKING DEKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"


OMAKE:

Mei held out her hand from where she was hunched over the half-built metal skull that would soon be Izuku Midoriya's.

"Miracle Girl, pass me the 2-millimeter allen wrench."

Yaoyorozu's eyes swept across the chaotic wasteland that was the majority of the workshop before she sighed and Created one.

Mei snatched it and fiddled a bit more with the skull before pausing. "Wait… did you just Create this?"

Yaoyorozu nodded. "It's faster than looking for one."

Mei blinked. "Well sure, but if you just make a new one every time you can't find something we're going to be buried in wrenches by next week."

Yaoyorozu shrugged, unfazed. "I saw a foundry in the far corner, you can just melt down the spares. Besides, anything I Create is perfect on the molecular scale so it's going to be orders of magnitude stronger than anything you can get from a hardware shop."

Mei hummed and tilted her head. "15 millimeter wrench, double ended."

Yaoyorozu Created and passed her the tool.

Mei grasped it in both hands and tried to bend it with all her might. "Whaddya know, you're right!" she turned back to Yaoyorozu. "What do you think about being employed by Hatsume Industries on a more permanent basis?"

Yaoyorozu blinked. "I guess I could think about it, but my goal first and foremost is to become a pro hero."

Mei waved her hand flippantly. "Eh, we're going to be half support company and half hero agency anyways, what's one more Pro Hero to manage? Oh, ball-peen hammer, please? Eight ounces."

Yaoyorozu passed her the tool and hummed thoughtfully. "I'll think about it, I guess."


A/N [Pixel]: So there's chapter 3. Bakugo and Inko are now in the Know, and Izuku has a head again! Sorry it took so long to update I get distracted very easily. Don't forget to go over to Ao3 to check out the art my boi Doobly Baggo made for the chapter!

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