Chapter Four: Interns (Broken Glass)
It finally happened, Izuku thought to himself with excitement.
They were finally getting interns!
Around a year and a half after going independent, their hero firm "Dekuravity" had gained enough prestige and held a record plenty solid to allow students from hero academies to apply for workplace internships. It had been hard work getting to this point, but honestly he and Ochako were incredibly excited that they were finally here.
They'd gotten to watch this year's U.A Sports Festival in person, giving both of them a chance to observe the students and potential interns. That had been a fun, if weird experience.
"It wasn't long ago we were down there," Ochako had told him, giggling as they watched the various students give it their all throughout all those tasks.
They'd identified a couple of students that they were interested in hiring as interns, but both of them wanted to explore some of the other hero academies as well. U.A alumni they both might have been, but U.A was far from the only school out there teaching future heroes.
They'd been granted access to check out the profiles for a few students from Shiketsu and other, lesser known academies. Most of the students from those schools would only be eligible for internships if they were at least second years, but Izuku tagged a few of the first years on the various sites for future reference.
In the end, Ochako and Izuku decided on three interns just to start. A first-year from U.A, and a pair of second-years from Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu. Granted, that was only if the students actually accepted the invitations, but as it turned out, all three accepted the internship.
The first-year was a spunky girl named Rui, who had chosen the hero name Tekken due to her Quirk, Buster Fist, amplifying the power of her punches. It was a simple, but powerful Quirk that she'd utilized to great effect during the Sports Festival, and though she hadn't won, she had demonstrated a keen mind and a drive to keep going that reminded Izuku of himself.
The second-year from Shiketsu was actually a transfer student from America named Seth, who went by the hero name Grand Slam. His Quirk was called Pinpoint Impact, which allowed him to identify weak points on a target and apply excessive damage to said weak points if he hit them properly. His fighting style was apparently centered around close-combat, though Izuku and Ochako hadn't gotten to see him in action, and he favored a martial arts style similar to the one Ochako had leaned from Gunhead.
Their third intern, from Ketsubutsu, was another girl called Sora who held the hero name Psykick. Her Quirk gave her telekinetic abilities similar to Ochako's Zero Gravity, and just like Ochako, she exploited it to crush her enemies in close-combat.
They'd tried to find students with Quirks or fighting styles that were similar to their own so they could teach them as much as possible, but it was also a good place for them to start learning exactly how to teach. Neither of them had done this before, after all.
Izuku had gotten their new interns all ready in the training room of their hero firm, preparing to get a rough idea of what they could do. Ochako was wrapping up the necessary paperwork, which thankfully was quite simple to take care of once the interns accepted the offer.
As soon as it was complete, she ran to the fridge to grab a handful of drinks for all of them, which they would need considering that she and Deku planned to run them into the dirt today and see where they stood with their current abilities.
Ok, so maybe Aizawa's insane teachings had rubbed off on them a bit. At least they were gonna give the unsuspecting newbies something to drink after they turned their muscles into jelly.
Yes, they were being nice. Shut up.
She wasn't at all looking forward to teaching their interns by flipping them into the floor multiple times. She was just looking forward to helping them gain experience in actual combat…by flipping them into the floor.
CRACK!
Ochako was torn from her cheerful thoughts of intensive training by the sound of glass shattering.
She didn't even freeze, reflexes burned into her bones causing her to race towards the source of the noise. She came around the corner of the hall to the training room and stopped in front of a huge pile of broken glass shards.
Ochako looked up from the mess to a stunned Rui still holding her fist out towards the glass, whose face had become incredibly pale. Izuku, Seth, and Sora's jaws had dropped as they observed the not-inconsiderable wreckage.
"Shit," Rui squeaked out at last, then bowed her head deeply. "I'm sorry! I'm—"
"Did you hurt yourself?" Ochako demanded, stepping around the mess and seizing Rui's arm to search for any damage. Thankfully, the girl's hero costume included steel gauntlets that had saved her from some nasty puncture wounds.
"I-I'm fine," Rui said shakily, her spunky personality taking a backseat in her shock. "I just—I'm sorry, I—"
"It's not your fault," Izuku interjected, causing her to whip her head towards him. He was still staring at the mess in disbelief. "I told you to demonstrate your Quirk. You did fine."
"But I broke…the wall," she muttered, trying to hide her face in her hands out of sheer embarrassment.
There were long, deep cracks stretching in a spider's web from the point of impact along the whole glass wall, but neither Izuku nor Ochako were overly worried about it at this point. Rather, they were getting suspicious.
"Rui, don't take this the wrong way, but there's no way you should've been able to break this glass," Ochako told her reassuringly, reaching up to carefully touch the glass.
"This wall was supposed to be designed to take my attacks up to forty percent," Izuku muttered, his frown growing deep. "There is no flipping way—"
"I'm gonna find the company that did the work on our training room," Ochako growled, opening the still-intact door carefully to get everyone out. "And I'm calling my dad."
"I'll take them out for a patrol, then," Izuku told her. "Show them one of our circuits."
"Um," Sora interrupted them nervously. "What's going on?"
Ochako looked at the shattered glass with an exceptionally angry look. "Someone in the company that did the work on our training room decided to rip us off by installing low-quality reinforced glass. We did not pay for low quality reinforced glass."
Izuku would have said a prayer for the poor soul who had incited his girlfriend's wrath, but he held no pity for them, either. She was still very careful about money thanks to her childhood, and if there was one thing that would mash down on every single hot button Ochako had, it was getting ripped off.
And this? Oh, she was gonna open up a whole case of whoopass for this.
She had already whipped her phone out to call her father, muttering viciously under her breath. "I'm suing them into the dirt, that could've gotten one of the kids hurt and this crap isn't worth even a third of what we paid for. Hi, dad! Can I get you out here at our firm? We got ripped off and the whole glass wall needs to be removed. Yeah, I'm pissed off, too…"
The interns watched, all of them mildly afraid, as Ochako stormed off with a sickly-sweet voice that promised misery for the bastards that had caused this disaster.
Izuku felt all warm and fuzzy watching her plot their demise.
"Right," he clapped his hands together, causing all three of them to jump. "Shall we get going?"
"Yes, sir!"
"I cannot believe the nerve of those people!" Ochako hissed at the table that evening as she tore into dinner.
Izuku sipped at a glass of tea he'd made as his girlfriend ranted furiously. She needed to vent, especially now that her father and his construction team were in the middle of renovating the training room to ensure it was safe. They'd have to order the reinforced glass all over again, and get it installed in panels since there was no way to get the original, large piece into the building.
Needless to say, Ochako was on a mission to drive the company that had ripped them off straight to hell. She'd already set up a meeting with a lawyer specializing in industrial cases, and the shattered glass and payment records they had available were plenty damning.
So it looked like they'd be doing plenty well, burning on this ripoff company. But it didn't take away how disappointed Ochako was that the first day with their interns had wound up being more problematic than either of them had hoped for.
"How about I hold the fort tomorrow and you take the interns out on patrol again?" Izuku offered, reaching across the table to clasp one of her hands. Ochako sighed and squeezed his hand tightly to alleviate a little stress. "I can handle things with your dad and the lawyer. You take tomorrow to get to know our newbies. Show them the ropes when they aren't half-freaked out."
"That'd be great," she murmured. "You sure you don't want me there? I could—"
"Ochako," he interrupted her, smiling at the young woman lovingly. "Those interns need a day with Uravity. You just be you tomorrow. Besides, we're a team. You handled the mess today, I'll handle it tomorrow. We'll take turns."
"Marry me already, you wonderful man."
The kitchen fell utterly silent for several seconds as they both processed what she'd just said, and then they were blushing like teenagers, flailing their arms around in a panic.
"I-I-I mean! Th-there's no rush!" Ochako squealed, then froze and scrambled to continue. "Wait-that's—that's not what I meant!"
"I-I get it!" Izuku stammered. "Th-there's no rush at all! N-not that I don't want to do that!"
They both managed, somehow, to blush even more and after a pregnant pause, snorted and started to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.
Ochako fanned her burning cheeks and smiled shyly at her boyfriend. "That got out of hand."
"I mean…" He shrugged a little helplessly. "We haven't really talked about it, but I—I do...I do. Want to marry you, that is."
"I hoped so," she replied, still blushing. "Let's just get our training room rebuild before we talk about that, ok? I can only handle so many emotions at once."
"Me too," Izuku agreed. His face felt too hot, but the smile curving his lips up was happy and real. "I could ask your dad for his blessing tomorrow."
"Pfft!" Ochako slapped a hand over her mouth to contain her laughter. "His blessing? He already loves you! He's probably wondering why it's taking so long!"
"You think so?"
"I know so," she told him, still giggling. "Mom told me."
"Sh-she did?!"
Ochako laughed at his stunned expression, then pushed herself up out of her chair and walked over to her boyfriend, who seemed to be trying to process everything. He jerked out of his stupor as she lifted a hand to frame his face, regaining his attention and lifting his eyes to her face. Her blush glowed on her rosy cheeks.
"Marry me?" She asked quietly.
"Of course," he answered, somehow managing to look stunned and happy all at once.
"Good," she leaned down to kiss him briefly, then pulled back to grab her dishes. "I'm gonna go plan out the route with the interns tomorrow. Help me out?"
"Sure thing," he said in a daze, following his girlfriend—fiancé?—back to their room.
Eventually, his brain caught up with everything, but it provided less-than-helpful input.
Did I just get engaged?
A/N: Again, sorry it's a bit late! Work has had me busy for the last couple of days! I'll try to crank out the remaining three chapters on time, just bear with me! Look forward to the next prompt, Try to Forget, coming soon!
As ever, please review and thanks for reading!