Double upload. The full author's note is in the next chapter. Also, tw costume descriptions (my least favorite thing ever). Enjoy!

- Chapter 11 -

Internship (I)

Yuka adjusted her posture when she heard footsteps approach her door.

Her nanny came in, dropping off an array of pills and a glass of water on her desk. Once the familiar sound of the door clicking shut rang out, her tense shoulders dropped down in relief. She carefully shuffled the papers in front of her, going back to doodling in the secret notebook she'd stuffed into a sheet protector in one of her many dossiers.

Being confined to her room was nothing new. She'd been homeschooled ever since she could remember, and mother didn't have any intentions of sending her to a school. Mother was a firm believer that toys were a waste of time and space. Electronics dulled the mind and having friends was trivial. It got boring most of the time, since there was not much else to do aside from studying, playing the piano, or any other hobby she could get her hands on.

Her old nanny used to sneak children's books into the mansion for her. She had loved that nanny- the old lady would pat her head and read her the bedtime stories that mother had never deemed necessary.

But eventually, the gifts and fairytales she brought with her became the very reason she was fired. Yuka missed her, especially when her current nanny never bothered to hold any conversations with her.

She absentmindedly drew the outline of a hand reaching out to grasp at air, its fingertips barely touching the thin chains she had scribbled onto the other side of the page.

Mother absolutely hated quirks and forbade their usage. In fact, Yuka's current house arrest was more of a punishment for using her quirk rather than breaking into her brother's room. Mother had been less than pleased that she'd been watching the Sports Festival of all things. She'd been given a stern lecture about the evils of quirk usage, and that heroics would only rot her judgment with grandiose displays of useless righteousness.

Which could very well be true- except she had no interest in heroics in the first place. It was her elder sister she had wanted to see.

Yuka had grown up with the implicit understanding that everyone in the family had a role to fulfill. To begin with, she was neither cute nor pretty. Her mother did not like her chubbiness, nor the unruly ringlets of bright blonde hair that made her look disheveled in contrast to the muted curls her siblings possessed. However, she made up for her shortcomings with academic success and a talent for the arts. She knew her own strengths and accomplishments very well. Yet, they all paled in comparison to the inadequacy she felt in the presence of family members.

Despite studying until her fingers blistered, she could never catch up to Seiichi's academic progress. No matter how many frilly dresses her nanny put her in, she would never look as pretty as Megumi. She could neither be the family successor, nor its poster child. She was simply… there. Children were meant to become what they were raised to be, and never anything more than that.

If that was the case, why was her sister trying so hard to fight the role she was born to play?

She had become unrecognizable ever since the day she came back from the hospital. Her unusually calm demeanor filled Yuka with a sense of foreboding. Megumi was a lot of things, but well-behaved was not one of them.

And why would she need to be? Looking intimidatingly pretty was her only redeeming quality. As long as she continued to simply look pretty, no one would bat an eye. She would never experience having to prove her worth, because her good looks made up for every wrong she did. No one expected more from her.

Yuka struggled to understand her. Why was she so set on becoming a hero when she didn't have a single heroic bone in her body? What was she so desperate to prove, when everything she wanted had always been handed to her on a silver platter? She had privileges that common people could only dream of.

Then again, Megumi had always been odd. Mother and father attributed it to her strange quirk.

Seiichi had the ability to weld anything containing iron if he created enough friction between his palms or fingers by rubbing them together. It was a fairly straightforward quirk. As for Yuka's, hers was a bit of a hassle to activate. She had to lock onto an item with her eyes and have any finger of her right hand touch something metallic at the same time for her telekinesis to work. Usually, a stainless steel pen or ring did the trick. They had more or less expected her to inherit some part of father's vision-based quirk since she had the same blue eyes he did.

In that regard, her older siblings resembled mother a lot more. Particularly Seiichi looked like a carbon copy of her, with his straight brown hair that only curled at the ends and intelligent, sleet-gray eyes. They were her siblings by blood, yet the aura they exuded was nothing short of formidable- so different from her.

And yet, she didn't know whether to be worried or relieved that it was Megumi who continued to be the black sheep of the family.

Her sister's quirk was not an extraordinarily rare one. But it was distinctive enough to stick out like a sore thumb when their family ancestry had no prior history of manifesting chains. Not only was it a strange mutation of their parent's quirks, it had also been unstable for the longest time. Mother detested it. She loathed it when Megumi's chains came out randomly at dinners or gatherings, even if the only thing they were doing was rest on her arms or shoulders like snakes coiled around a branch. They didn't know the trigger or the reason for their manifestation.

Then again, those were the stories she'd been told and not ones she had actively experienced. By the time Yuka was old enough to walk, her elder sister had already gone through a slew of counseling sessions, medical examinations, and quirk therapy.

Whenever she happened to see her sister use her chains, she felt like she was seeing something she shouldn't. It looked private and personal in a way Yuka would never understand.

Megumi's unpredictable behavior was daunting to deal with, let alone witness. She would obsess over specific things until she finally got her hands on them- after which she would never touch them again.

Their parents made sure to cater to her every whim. Whatever she wanted, she would get. As long as she was satisfied, she didn't raise a ruckus and kept to herself. Yuka wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear from sight whenever those sharp turquoise eyes landed on her. There was something off-putting about them, but she could never quite pinpoint what it was.

When Megumi had begged to attend a hero school, their parents had gone along with it expecting her to quit after a few weeks. It wasn't an unfounded assumption. After all, once she obtained something, she had the tendency of dropping it just as quickly.

Their family had good enough connections for a pro-hero to put in a recommendation for her. Though in all honesty, they didn't expect her to pass the entrance exam.

But she did.

It only further alienated her from their parents. Even if Megumi claimed she'd joined UA to be closer to her crush, why would anybody go that far for such a trivial reason? Besides, she wasn't subtle with her admiration for the flame hero Endeavor whenever he happened to attend any crowdfunding parties. Not that Yuka would ever understand what she saw in that scary man.

Then she came back from the USJ Incident, looking like she'd gotten hit by a high-speed freight train. It had further convinced Seiichi of her incompetence. Mother didn't address it, which meant father wouldn't either. They were already displeased enough by the reporters who'd come knocking at their door for an interview regarding their stance on UA's security measures.

Yuka was by no means close to her sister, but something was changing.

Her expressions, tone, and mannerisms; there wasn't a single trace of Megumi in them. The look in her eyes revealed a level of situational awareness she had never shown before, and the feeling of pure disdain she gave off was unmistakable.

This person moved, talked, and breathed like a stranger.

It was startling. Did nobody else see it? Or did they just not care? Was she making a big deal out of nothing? Her sister rarely lashed out or demanded anything anymore. The glances she spared them were neither jealous nor angry. The same couldn't be said of the thinly veiled revulsion she looked at mother with.

However, Yuka was smart enough not to point it out. Mother did always say that children should be seen and not heard.

Megumi yawned for the fifth time in the past three hours, picking at her nails. She had cut them two days ago, yet they had already grown back. What if she was told to fight off a thief or a serial killer or a neighborhood creep and one of her nails decided to snap off?

Oh, wait. She wasn't doing any of that. Because she'd been banished to desk duty.

That's right. Airashi Megumi, the hero of walk-in reports, the keeper of damage cost receipts, the vigilante of the paperwork. Really, what else had she expected from her very first hero internship?

How had Colby spent her every waking hour doing such repetitive, mind-numbing work?

Every single day, there was new stuff to organize, new numbers to calculate, new people who needed to get their shoes off the carpeted area oh my god that's restricted access what do you think the queue barriers are there for? Once again, she had to come to terms with the horrible reality that some people really were just NPCs, and that common sense was not as common as she would've liked. As luck would have it, the pro she had chosen to intern with would rather have her sit around in his agency all day, rather than have her complicate his hero work. Rather than an intern, she felt more like an unpaid gopher.

She seethed in jealousy at the idea that her fellow classmates were having more eventful internships. Well, this is what she had wanted, so she couldn't even justify her complaints. Grumbling, she popped one of the iron supplements in her mouth that Recovery Girl had forcefully prescribed her. Frequent nosebleeds apparently didn't mesh well with iron-deficiency anemia.

It almost got stuck in her throat when Secretary Jia phased through the cement wall to stand right in front of her.

"Hi darling! Oh my," She had the audacity to look shocked that Megumi was coughing her throat raw. "You seem lively! That's good. He told me he'll be taking you on the field today, so get changed quick before he changes his mind!"

Who said they would be doing the what? Couldn't they have told her that four days ago, back when she was hopeful enough to roam around in her hero costume all day?

She looked at Secretary Jia in disbelief. "Wo-what? Right now? Wait no I mean yes, my clothes-" She wanted to ask why this suddenly became an option so far into the internship, but she felt like she shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Secretary Jia sighed as she watched the blonde girl take off through the lobby lounge's exit in pursuit of her hotel room. "Such administrative talent, wasted on heroics."

Megumi, on the other hand, found herself sighing out of frustration while putting on her costume. Her new design had arrived just before internships started. She had requested something simple and conventional to make it easier to move around in. Alas, the designer seemed to have taken some artistic liberties.

The suit itself was easy enough to slip into though. A sleeveless mesh bodysuit was sewn into the black pants to keep the look together. For whatever reason, the right leg of her pants cut off right above her thigh, showed mesh, then had the fabric sewn on again like she was wearing a single thigh-high sock with mesh thermal wear underneath. There was a thigh strap on her other leg, just in case she would need to carry around any small contraptions. It wasn't very noticeable due to the metal bands on her ankles, but the black shoes were a part of the bodysuit. She had specifically requested a hidden zipper around her waist because she just knew going to the bathroom with this thing on would only worsen her anger issues otherwise.

The thing she was most appreciative of was the dark red, high collar, loose crop shirt she wore above the suit. It was medium-sleeved down to her elbows, but she had long black sleeves and gloves attached underneath it like thermal wear, so she wouldn't have to waste time putting on three different articles of clothing one after another.

However, she definitely didn't remember having so many thin chains loop around her calves and forearms. They were connected to the metal bands wrapped around her wrists and ankles. She figured they'd absorb some damage if she ever had to block a blow. There were also some chains attached to one of her pockets. She found a really long one in the bag which she didn't know what to do with, so she just looped it around her neck twice like a necklace.

She fixed her short hair in a low-effort ponytail and reached her hand out to the mask inside the suitcase.

Colby had always liked the look of kitsune masks. The designer had made exactly what she had poorly drawn onto her sheet of paper. A black mask in the distinct shape of a fox face, white protective material shaping the eyes, and a red four-point star on its forehead. It had two short stripes of red on both cheeks resembling whiskers.

Pulling the straps out of the wrapping it came in, she put it on and briefly looked at herself in the hotel's bathroom mirror.

She felt ridiculous. Like she was… cosplaying or something.

Ever since she had gotten the suitcase with her costume, Megumi had avoided wearing the mask. It had no particular functions other than to hide her face, but she had requested it anyway since most heroes seemed to wear one. Not that she had any idea why they felt the need to hide their faces when most of their names could be found with a simple google search. Perhaps it was just for the aesthetic.

Scratch that, it was definitely for the aesthetic. Endeavor wouldn't have looked half as intimidating if his face wasn't on fire.

Megumi placed her mask on the bathroom sink counter, deciding that today was not the day she would start wearing it. She stepped outside her room, not before she patted herself down to check if she had her keys on her. Maybe adding a few more pockets to the suit wouldn't hurt.

By the time she returned to the lobby lounge, Eye-Gun hero X-Less stood next to Secretary Jia. They seemed to have been in a deep discussion before Megumi walked in. Secretary Jia looked slightly distressed.

X-Less scrutinized Megumi with his uncovered left eye, arms crossed. She had some interactions with him on the first day of her internship, but that was about it. He basically vanished after that and there had been neither hide nor hair of him at the agency.

He cleared his throat. "I apologize for neglecting our internship so far. There were some pressing matters at hand. I've heard you're a serious worker."

Megumi fought off the urge to grimace. It used to be her job to deal with names and numbers, so her natural inclination had kicked in when they had asked for her assistance. "It's okay sir. Miss Jia has been teaching me a lot of new things."

The shorter woman clapped her on the back with force the likes of which Megumi had never felt before. Had her quirk immunized her to texture perception, or did she think Megumi's back was made out of metal rods and cement wall? "Oh you, such a sweet talker! No need to be humble about your skills, darling. Anyway, I'll leave you two to your hero business- you," She leveled a hard look at X-Less. "See to it that she doesn't break her hands, I need her to help me sort through insurance audits later."

The blonde paled slightly, wringing her hands as if to make sure they were still intact.

X-Less muttered something along the lines of "I said you could open intern applications, stop soliciting child labor…" before motioning for Megumi to follow him.

She liked to consider this the actual start of her internship training.

Contrary to her beliefs, they didn't spend all day running around the rooftops of the city or swoop down to help civilians in distress every other minute. As far as she could tell, there was a distinct over-saturation of heroes, no matter the city. She had purposefully chosen the X-Less agency located in Osaka, and it was different from Tokyo in the sense that pro heroes in the top charts were harder to come by.

This part of Osaka was fairly calm because the population was pretty low compared to the busier parts within big cities and urban areas.

To add another layer to the hero society cake, every hero had an implicit "tier" of their own. They weren't official or anything, but hero rankings definitely played a role. Petty crimes and daily inconveniences were left for heroes who casually strolled down the street every day. The more famous the hero, the rarer it was to see them prowling around in broad daylight since they usually took care of more serious crimes and left the area as soon as the criminals were apprehended.

X-Less might not have been in the top charts, but he was still pretty popular despite being on the down-low. Megumi found that he often collaborated with local police, introducing her as his intern to one or two officers he regularly worked with. He mostly showed her how to navigate through back alleys, explaining that although rooftops offered a better vantage point, they also left heroes in plain sight of criminals who would wait for them to leave before they struck.

"However, they are almost never deterred by the presence of police. That's why it's important to work closely with the police force and show that wherever there are officers, heroes are located nearby. Remember that we should act as deterrence first and enforcer second." X-Less said. They sat on top of a skyscraper that overlooked the port of Osaka, where the sight of the Ferris wheel lights looked especially pretty.

Megumi angled forward to lean on the guard railing. "But what role do the police play if heroes do all the fighting and get all the press? Don't they have the highest death rates too, since they don't receive quirk combat training? Guns don't even work against most quirks. It seems like thankless work, I don't get the point."

He shook his head. "Due to heroes taking an active role in protecting the city, police work has become highly bureaucratized. You need to keep in mind that there has to be a system in place that retains the standard of public morals. Heroes cannot make official arrests. We cannot interfere with complex issues such as domestic disputes. Anything concerning the law and judicial matters is handled by the police. They protect citizens first and foremost. Our job as heroes doesn't necessarily mean our first priority is to protect civilians. It is to neutralize any and all threats with our lawful right to use our quirks. That's why rescue and evacuation specializations exist, to combat the possible criminalization of hero work. There have been instances of heroes causing casualties in the heat of battle, and they often don't face any consequences beyond public persecution."

That… did make sense. But did a system like that really work? The police force seemed to be severely understaffed and underfunded, resulting in worse outcomes for those whose quirks were hard to control. They got permanent marks on their personal records, which would affect their job prospects, which in turn led to a never-ending cycle of illegal activity.

Then again, it hardly affected her. Her goal was to pass her classes, graduate, and move far away from her family. Seiichi could have the position of first-born he so desperately wanted for all she cared. She would get her name off of the family registry as soon as she became of age. And as long as a hero license could pay her bills, diving too deep into the philosophies of hero society would be counterproductive. That was exactly how vigilantes like Stain were created.

X-Less gave her another probing look with his visible eye. "I would like to apologize again that I wasn't able to start our training earlier. To be perfectly honest, I did not think you would be choosing my agency. That is why my schedule did not allow time for our internship for a few days."

Megumi couldn't really fault him for that. She had been drafted by a huge load of agencies, but most of them had been too close to Hosu city, or she didn't think the heroes who had drafted her could really give her what she wanted out of a training internship. There had been some big names in there, such as Kamui Woods and Best Jeanist. She figured it was because their quirks were similar to hers in some shape or form. Best Jeanist was a hard no, since Bakugo would be a nightmare intern buddy. Kamui Woods relied heavily on his quirk, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to go down the capture-hero route if it meant losing out on combat experience. Not to mention she didn't want to rely solely on her quirk.

It was probably difficult for people with quirks to ever imagine being quirkless. They were born with their quirks, lived with their quirks, and died with their quirks. It would never occur to them that their quirks could fail them, since it was an integral part of their identity. It would explain how villains could justify the harm they did, since most of them probably felt that a fundamental piece of them was being rejected by society as a whole.

But Colby had existed her whole life without a quirk. Neither this body nor this quirk belonged to her. Megumi found it difficult to fully trust that her chains wouldn't abandon her at critical moments, given their history of instability.

She had wanted an internship similar to Ochako's, where she could learn some hands-on combat moves. However, Megumi had significantly less muscle mass than most others in her class, meaning she wouldn't really fare too well with the kind of offensive martial arts she wanted to practice. During the sports festival, she had made sure to drag out her fight against Todoroki for as long as possible in order to tire him out. And it had worked- but it definitely wouldn't have if her opponent had more endurance.

Todoroki had a tendency to overuse his ice, which he wasn't meant to do in the first place due to the dual nature of his powers. He had vowed to become a top hero when he couldn't even do himself a favor and accept that his quirk belonged to himself, not his father. His quirk wasn't something that could be split up into just fire or just ice, and by trying to do so, he was rejecting his quirk as a whole.

It still pissed her off that he managed to wipe the floor with her using only half of his capacity when she had given it her all.

In any case, X-Less seemed like the type of hero who wasn't too flashy despite his eye-gun quirk. Megumi wanted to see firsthand how lower-ranked heroes with niche, long-ranged quirks operated. From the time she had spent helping out secretary Jia with paperwork, she garnered that being a hero was a busy job, no matter your rank or popularity.

Megumi shivered when she remembered the several lines of corrupted code she had found in one of the desktop folders. Jia had ordered her to check if they were usable, and told her to "do your coding magic" on them. Not that she had any specific coding experience… more like basic IT skills. But the software developments in this universe seemed to be geared more toward hero gadgets and security technology rather than making bureaucratic jobs easier.

She glanced at the man next to her, nervously playing with the chains on her wrists. "We don't have to do double the training to make up for lost time, right? Miss Jia says she wants me to show her how to manage digital spreadsheets in my spare time."

X-Less seemed to roll his eyes under his mask. "Depends on what you want to learn… and please don't encourage her behavior, she's already shameless enough."

Recovery Girl looked over the papers in her hands, reading glasses perched on top of her nose.

There was nothing unusual about Airashi Megumi's medical files.

Aside from the head trauma she had suffered as a result of the USJ incident, she was a healthy young girl. Her colleagues at UA had reported a change in personality, but that wasn't too out of the ordinary for head injuries.

Eraserhead hadn't reported any specific misgivings either. Then again, that man had his hands full with possibly the most troublesome class UA had seen so far. She doubted he had time for every individual student that his responsibility extended to when he still had alumni hounding him for recommendations and advice.

However, Airashi's weak condition following the sports festival concerned her. None of the other students had come to her with such severely low blood pressure. Her face had been a pale blue shade, indicating a lack of oxygen. Recovery Girl had grown worried that the poor thing was in a state of hypoxemia. Her depleted stamina had made it impossible for Recovery Girl to simply kiss the pain away.

She deemed it best to call Airashi back into her office a day later and run a quick test, just to be sure there were no serious underlying causes. To prevent any problems that might arise during the internship period.

It was often the case that some quirks required a bit of medical intervention in case they were leeching important nutrients from the user's body without their knowledge. Airashi hadn't seemed too keen on needles, but she had nevertheless reluctantly given permission for Recovery Girl to draw some blood.

There was nothing too worrisome about the results that came back. Low iron and vitamin D, high red blood cell count. Iron deficiency was particularly common. A high red blood cell count wasn't ideal, but not entirely uncommon in people whose quirk activation relied on their body producing a higher amount than normal. If she had to guess, her nutrient intake couldn't keep up with the red blood cells being produced.

Airashi never had any previous complaints of anemia, cold sweats, or headaches. In fact, Recovery Girl doubted she would have come to her office if it weren't for the atrocious state she'd been in after her match against Todoroki's son. The over usage of her quirk was the most probable cause.

Overall, they were fixable issues. Recovery Girl prescribed her iron supplements, along with the recommendation of a healthier diet. Though, she doubted the young girl would heed her advice. Health and wellness were the last things heroes tended to prioritize. And once her quirk matured properly, she would most likely have less of such undesirable symptoms.

Still, decades of experience filled Recovery Girl with a sense of nagging unease. She placed Airashi's dossier file back in her reference folder, sticking a yellow page marker onto it before closing it for good.

The internship arc. Yikes! I wanted to get this part over with quickly, hence the double upload. I knew I couldn't avoid the costume description much longer, but damn do I hate it. I did draw it though because I cannot describe it with words for the life of me. Not only am I not a fashion-oriented person, but I am also not a doctor by any means so excuse the poor use of medical jargon (sorry for giving any med students out there the ick). From what I found, a high red blood cell count is not at all healthy lmao, but people with quirks gotta have weird ass immune systems