Being a pro hero in training had many advantages. You were still a kid in the eyes of many adults, privy to all the spoiling an adult might give to a kid; while also being a well known public figure that actively protects them. So you get spoiled twice as much. It was a lesson that Mt Lady insisted on teaching Mineta Minoru every day during lunchtime.

While Mineta was … for lack of a better word … scared shitless over working for the Lurkers for his practical field training, it's not like he had much of a choice. The work studies that he had been dreading doing a year or two from now, had suddenly been pushed into the Hero Studies first year schedules. While Mineta deduced that it was due to the unprecedented events that occurred within the last year, he couldn't help but think his teacher Aizawa was using the children's absence as an excuse to get more sleep. His internship a few months ago had been with Mt Lady, and despite how vocal he was about how much that had scarred him; it seemed UA and the Hero Public Safety Commission had set him up with the Lurkers due to Mt. Lady having experience with "training" Mineta. They probably also hoped they could keep him in check.

For the most part, it was turning out to be a good fit for him. He was working alongside his partner in crime Denki, and had ample time to try and flirt with Hagakure and Shiozaki. He was learning teamwork from Kamui Woods, decisiveness from Edgeshot, and as he slowly started getting comfortable around Mt Lady again, he learned about public interaction. Mostly in the form of how to get free lunch.

"One of bowl of mochi please!" Mt. Lady said approaching a little stand in the shopping district.

"Oh Mt Lady! Of course! That'll be 500 yen!" Said the excited woman as she prepared it.

"Oh, are you a fan of mine?" Mt. Lady said, her smile turned into a flirting grin.

"Yes of course!" said the owner, with hearts in her eyes.

"You know I'm such a big fan of mochi, I might end up coming back here more often. Maybe you could make a "Mt Lady special" for me every time!"

"That would be amazing! I bet I would get a lot of customers that way! Thank you very much! Have a great day!" Said the woman as she handed the mochi to Mt Lady and waved her off.

Waving and walking back over to Mineta, Mt Lady's genuine smile turned into a smirk, saying "That's how it's done kid. Have you been keeping count?"

Mineta sighed, "You've gotten away with 10,000 yen worth of food, gotten out of a speeding ticket, and gotten a pay raise from the Hero Commission."

"And how's your total right now?"

Mineta grumbled.

"What was that?"

"Some hard candy from some old ladies; a few apples, and a fake number from a chick."

Satisfied with gloating, Mt Lady turned and started to walk, with Mineta following behind; her expression becoming more serious. "What civilians are willing to give to you is a good way to know how locally what the public trust in you is. Trust me, if we were trying this exercise in the places where I first started my hero career and was making a lot of mistakes, it would not go as well. Developing an ability to persuade here could mean one day being able to talk down a villain into surrendering. Patrolling is an important time of the shift."

"You just want free food."

"And you just want to learn how use your career to pick up chicks! Now, I'm going to enjoy this mochi in peace, alone, and you go find your own lunch. Make sure it's a hearty one, after lunch we are getting a briefing on the recent influx of villains to this city."

Mineta wandered around a bit, wallowing in being stuck with Mt Lady and trying to find something good to eat. Today had been a waste so far. His feet hurt, they had made no progress with the missing persons' case, a villain had gotten away, and he still did not have a girl's number! It was however these calm moments in his training that helped him to center himself and remind himself why he was doing all this.

His was jerked out of his thoughts when he bumped into someone leaving the street from his right in a hurry, and fell to the ground. "Hey, watch it kid!" said the figure. Mineta stood up and observed the man, who a bit taller than him, definitely pulled the short end of the stick when it came to mutation quirks. Looking at this mix of a rat and a porcupine, Mineta wondered how this dude hugged people without poking them.

Mineta offered his hand to help the man up, only to get his hand slapped away as the man got up. "Nice costume, dude," the man said with obvious sarcasm. "What are you trying to be?"

Mineta, offended and his pride and butt wounded replied, "Hey!" And Mineta probably had a super great comeback too, but the rat-man readjusted his windbreaker jacket, shivered from the cold, and walked away. Probably to get somewhere warm. Mineta looked towards where the rat-man came from, and with eyes no longer on him, the rat-man quickened his pace.

The rat-man had came from street of the shopping district with a dead end, and a dead energy. It was decrepit. A few of the stores had broken in windows, glass all over the walkway. The storefronts' gates were permanently shuttered closed, with the locks rusted shut. Plants were overgrown from a windowsill garden, spilling over the building. There was graffiti everywhere, some with cool designs, some in unsavory language and symbols. However, at the end of this turn, past all the abandoned shoes stores and pizza places, was a bright white restaurant. Its bushes surrounding it, trimmed and proper, except for one bush that looked crushed; had no snow covering them, and their flowers blooming. Its windows were clear and polished, though not anything Mineta could see through. A menu hanged from the window next to the door. Curiosity and hunger getting the best of him, Mineta decided that this was as good of a place and time as any to get lunch, his legs sore from his day. Maybe he could also get some answers as to why the rat-man was hurrying away, he thought as he opened the door.

Mt. Lady finished up her lunch, enjoying a few seconds of peace and sitting before getting off her seat. She was already looking forward to finishing up her shift and going home later this evening. She was dreading the briefing, though she did look forward to flirting with Kamui Woods some more while there.

Mt. Lady tried to call Mineta over her phone, only for him to not pick up. "Damn brat is probably taking a nap somewhere." Which is what she did a lot as a hero training, so she knew what she was talking about. Over the next couple of minutes she kept trying to call him. With no luck in that avenue, she walked around looking for him, starting to get more and more concerned as the minutes passed by. She might have to resort to looking thru the malls security cameras to find him, she realized, as she walked thru an abandoned alley of the shopping district. With no evidence of a restaurant in sight. Except for in a trash can, where in it sat a cup with a smiley face on it that reads, "Mr. Smoothie's."