Izuku sat studying on his bed within the barracks. While Sundays were usually a break for the cadets, Izuku preferred to spend every waking moment studying or honing his skills. His study in the art of combat and war had been progressing well, he had managed to chew through most of the books the entire compound had and was now purchasing books to study even more. His superiors were impressed with his work ethic, but that didn't matter to him. All that mattered was becoming as strong and knowledgeable as possible in preparation for the future.

Villains and the criminal organizations they worked for had been dealing with law enforcement for decades and they knew exactly how they played ball. So Izuku studied both modern and ancient warfare, he was determined to forge himself and the squadmates he would one day lead into the perfect weapon with which to fight villains. Already rumors were circulating that heroes and villains had been clashing in increasing frequency and some believed a large-scale power struggle was about to erupt within the underworld with the death of All Might. Izuku expected they were right, the histories he had been reading corroborated the idea of large-scale upheaval following the death of a prominent figure.

Izuku had just passed the halfway point of his book when there was a knock on his door. Surprised, he put his book down and opened the door to find Ahmya standing there.

"Oh good you're here, Gunsō Arinobu wants to see us in his office," she said

"All right, give me a second," he responded and closed the door.

He changed out of his casual attire, and put on his uniform and shoes, and then came out of his room and followed Ahmya. Ever since their evaluation, they had been put on a teaching course intended for squad leaders. It involved learning a bit of everything, from demolition to tactical oversight. They were expected to be able to fill the shoes of any squad member in the event someone was incapacitated or killed in action. It was demanding work and both his and Ahmya's schedules ran them later into the day than other cadets.

The two of them had also taken to sparring and training with each other. Izuku had started learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from Ahmya and Ahmya was being taught the basics of CQC by Izuku. With both of them being taught Krav Maga by Gunsō Arinobu himself. All QSU personal were taught the style as it had emerged after the birth of quirks as one of the most efficient means of neutralizing quirk users, even if the user had differing physiology. QSU members often consisted of individuals with quirks unsuited for direct combat. A decent number had limited mental or physical-based quirks that were too weak to be relied upon to save their life or others in a rapidly evolving situation. So all members were trained in a variety of standard melee weapons, weapon improvisation, and martial arts to supplement their training in firearms.

They arrived at Gunsō Arinobu's office, and after a knock, they were told to enter. They stood at attention in front of Gunsō Arinobu as he finished what he was writing. When he finally finished he put his pen down and looked up at them.

"At ease," he said

They relaxed and shifted into more casual stances.

"You've both been training for a month now, most of the fundamentals are taken care of and your training with each other has been rapidly increasing your progress as well. I feel it's time we get you both into your own squads and work on training you both in squad exercises. Both of you will be required to focus on squad cohesion, movement, defensive tactics, and tactical support; in addition to your own personal studies and training. Once the basics are taken care of, and you both have some field experience in support, you and your squad will be promoted and trained in assault tactics." He then handed both several pages of information stapled together.

"Finally, you will both report to Gunsō Sosuke, where you will both choose minor specializations in addition to your regular generalized training. He is expecting you both to report to him at 11:00 tomorrow. Dismissed." Then promptly returned to his paperwork.

They filed out of his office and started talking on their way back to the barracks.

"A squad can range from 8-12 people right?" asked Ahmya

Izuku nodded, "At the minimum, we'll have five field operatives under our command for a total of six. Then we'll have at least two support personnel who will aid us from back at headquarters."

"Do you think they'll let us pick who we get on your team or will they pick for us?" she asked leafing through the small stack of papers.

"It will probably be curated based on our personalities, prior experiences, and current training level. They won't want to assign anyone to us who will be completely unreasonable or will clash with us at every opportunity. Gunsō Arinobu said squad cohesion will be an aspect of our training so we'll still probably have to deal with troublesome people but that'd be part of the training. Testing to see how well we can handle people who might not mesh well with our personality..." As he was talking we got steadily quieter but his rambling mumbling continued.


Ahmya had learned to let him be during his ramblings, she pointed it out the first few times but it was such a well-ingrained habit that he kept doing it. At the very least it helped him think through problems and come up with ideas or solutions. So she let Izuku ramble while she continued to read over the papers given to her, paying particular attention to the page detailing the roles of each squad.

COMBAT/FIELD PERSONAL ROLES

KEY ROLES: Squad Leader, Sniper, Demolitions

SUB ROLES: Fire Support, Tech Specialist, Negotiator/Civilian Liaison

SUPPORT PERSONEL ROLES

Tactical Advisor/Link to HQ, R&D Specialist for Squad

The squad leader was fairly self-explanatory, as was Sniper and Demolitions. The individual write-ups detailing the purposes of those roles providing no additional information on what she had already concluded.

Fire Support was a bit interesting, it was essentially a squad member who focused on heavy weapons and supporting the rest of the field team with said weapons. They would be permitted any weapon they or the squad leader felt necessary for the mission but the squad leader reserved the right to deny the use of a weapon if they deemed it unnecessary or excessive.

Tech specialists mainly focused on the field use of advanced technology. Such as unknown support weapons, quirk-generated technology, the hacking of computers, and other related activities. They would be essential units within a squad as many criminal organizations used computers and a wide array of technology. The Tech Specialist was also responsible for securing digital information while on a mission.

The Liason was another critical role. Oftentimes, the QSU worked with Police forces and heroes in a variety of capacities, the Liason ensured that relations between the two parties went smoothly and that there were no problems of communication. This was also a role the Squad Leader was expected to know inside and out.

The Support Roles were a bit more interesting and stood out to Ahmya as she continued to read. The Tactical Advisor was their link to QSU headquarters and would not be deployed to the field often. They focused on providing real-time information to the field operatives while out on a mission and relaying vital information to the rest of the QSU. They could also relay new orders quickly to operatives. They were also given numerous courses in strategy creation and strategy improvisation, together in conjunction with the squad leader they would form a variety of contingency plans and stratagems to be used in a variety of situations.

Finally, the R&D Specialist was the most unique of all the roles. They were an individual from the engineering core, either from the military or from a hero studies program and were tasked with developing personalized equipment for their assigned squad. While QSU operatives were trained to fight and operate without their quirks, quirks could often be useful tools for accomplishing a mission and the R&D Specialist helped ensure that those talents were used to their fullest. Because of them, each squad was unique and could often bring unique skill sets to a mission that could help resolve unique cases.

While Ahmya was busy reading she realized they were coming up on the barracks and spoke up loudly, so as to wake Izuku from his constant stream of muttering.

"All right, well I'll see you tomorrow morning. Goodnight Izuku," she said.

Izuku jumped slightly and looked at the barracks with a slight measure of surprise. Apparently, he hadn't even noticed they had made it back already.

"Oh, uh, yeah, goodnight," he said.

Ahmya merely grinned and started to make her way to her own room. She had a feeling tomorrow was going to be tiring and wanted to get some extra sleep in.


Izuku awoke the next morning well-rested. After going through some stretches and light exercise to help him wake up, he went to the cafeteria to eat before his meeting with Gunsō Sosuke. The food was simple but tasted good and was efficient. After eating he started to make his way to Gunsō Sosuke's office, running into Ahmya on the way.

"So what are you thinking about specializing in?" she asked him as they walked.

"I was thinking maybe tactical and Tech Specialist, I think those would best compliment my abilities as a squad leader. There may be moments where we are cut off from command, in which case having the training to come up with stratagems on the fly would be invaluable," he replied.

Ahmya seemed to give that some thought as they walked into the office. Gunsō Sosuke was a man in his early '50s, his pepper gray hair, aging features, and several scars, including one that seemed to have destroyed one eye marking him as a survivor of many encounters.

"Good, you're both here. Sit down and make yourselves comfortable," he said briskly.

They both sat down in faded leather armchairs, as Gunsō Sosuke got up and went to a table behind his desk.

"Would either of you like some tea?" he asked as he opened a cabinet door and pulled out three teacups.

"Yes sir." they both replied in unison.

Gunsō Sosuke proceeded to fill the three cups with some green tea and passed them out to them when filled. When they were all situated, Gunsō Sosuke took a sip of his tea and sat back in his chair.

"All right then, let's start with you Cadet Mirodriya. Do you have any areas in mind in which you like to specialize in?" he asked, pulling a clipboard with some form on it to him as he did.

"I was thinking of Tactical and Tech Specialist, sir." Izuku said.

"mmmm... Tactical is pretty common for squad leaders to pick and we do encourage it. Tech Specialist is also relatively common but for other reasons. So, what draws you to those fields?" asked Gunsō Sosuke, making a note on the form.

"I feel those two fields would best compliment my role as a squad leader, I want to be as effective and useful as possible on missions," replied Izuku.

Gunsō Sosuke gave another "Mmmmm..." as he jotted down another note. Then he looked up again, a gleam in his one eye.

"A standard and practical answer, and one I accept for Tactical. However, I don't believe it for Tech Specialist, not for you specifically anyways. While we do encourage you to be the best kind of QSU agent possible, we also want to be able to leave the QSU with a skill set that would allow you to find work elsewhere if you decided to leave one day. This organization is a brutal career path, if you don't decide to leave, accept a promotion and become an administrator as I did eventually, or join the military, then you are likely to be forced to leave or go into retirement due to injury." he said gesturing to his face and then rolling up the sleeve of his left arm to show them a bunch of surgical marks. Making it clear that the use of his left arm was very difficult due to some extreme injury suffered in the past.

After rolling the sleeve down he then reached into a drawer of his desk and pulled out a small folder with Izuku's name printed on it.

"I can tell from your dossier and from communications I've had with Detective Tsukauchi that you don't have much of a passion for stuff like computers and technology. My personal recommendation and Detective Tsukauchi also recommends this, is that you instead look into R&D. It's a bit of a more unusual path, but you are smart, creative, already have an interest in Support Technology, and are fascinated by quirks according to Detective Tsukauchi. Furthermore, training within that field will prepare you for a career in that industry should you decide to leave one day. So while I ask Cadet Ahmya about her picks I want to think and consider my recommendation, I will ask you again before you leave."

Gunsō Sosuke then proceeded to talk to Ahmya about her picks while Izuku sat and thought about what he had said. He had to admit that Gunsō Sosuke was correct, personally, he didn't have much interest in technology. By contrast, his interest in Support Technology and quirks was still high despite not being able to become a hero. If anything, his interest in Support Technology had increased while his interest in quirks had waned. There was also the fact that not all Support Technology was limited by a quirk, there were a few development firms that specialized in creating generalized technology to aid people with vastly differing quirks.

If he accepted Gunsō Sosuke's and Detective Tsukauchi's recommendation then he could probably help develop support technology both for himself and his squad. Then if he ever decided to leave, then he would have something to fall back on. It was the smarter choice he knew, but it wouldn't help fight villains as much being able to hack would be. The QSU often had to go up against organizations of criminals, both within the country and even outside if required. Having more than one person with the skills to hack or hotwire enemy technology would be invaluable, but could he maybe do the same by developing technology that did the same? He didn't know for sure, but the logical side of his brain had always had a stronger hold over him than his emotional side did in moments like this.

After Gunsō Sosuke had finished talking to Ahmya, who choose Sniping and Tech Specialist as her specialization due to her intent to join the military in the future, he turned his attention back to Izuku.

"So, have you given thought to my recommendation?" he asked.

Izuku gave a small sigh and nodded. "I think your recommendation is better than my initial pick, I'd like to focus on R&D, sir," he said.

Gunsō Sosuke smiled and gave a nod as he marked the last of the form off. "In that case, our meeting is concluded. I will send the forms off to your instructors who will contact you about your adjusted schedules. Dismissed." he said

At that, the two of them stood, gave Gunsō Sosuke a small bow before heading out of his office.