Intervening Moments

It was time. The tense encounter with Bakugo had thrown all of them off, but now that the afternoon was winding down Jiro exchanged a look with Ashido and Tsuyu. Both of them nodded. "Mei, before you leave, can we talk with you?"

The gadgeteer spun around, "Did you need something?" A twinkle entered her crosshair shaped eye, something that boded poorly for someone. Hopefully that would be Power Loader rather than any of them.

"Sort of." Jiro said, trying to play it cool, "We just wanted to talk to you about something alone, if that's okay."

Hatsume smiled, "Curfew isn't for another couple hours, I should be fine if I get back to the workshop before then."

Tsuyu placed a finger to her lip, "Don't you mean back to your dorm room?"

Hatsume blinked, looking puzzled, "Why would I go there?"

The trio of heroines exchanged a glance. Jirou sighed, "Let's just go to my room."

Eventually they settled for Ashido's room. Mei was still looking about, taking in all the details, but more importantly, wasn't trying to touch any of Jirou's electronics or instruments. Tsuyu had narrowly saved the pink haired girl from certain death when she picked up and then immediately let go of an electric guitar to look at a subwoofer, catching it before it hit the ground. After that Ashido dragged Mei out for her own safety while Tsuyu calmed the punk heroine down. A short, tense conversation had them reconvene in the room with the least electronics.

Jirou was still staring daggers at the pink haired girl, even if Mei either failed to notice or refused to acknowledge it.

Tsuyu cleared her throat, "Mei," The gadgeteer blinked and her head swiveled to look at Tsuyu, a small grin plastered on her lips. There was something about that expression that still unnerved Tsuyu. "We wanted to talk to you about last weekend." Ashido and Jirou nodded, if sullenly in Jirou's case.

"Oh? Is this about the babies I showed off last week?" Mei was all smiles, "I'm sure I can come up with something for you too."

"It is," Tsuyu confirmed, "but we didn't want to talk to you about support equipment. Not right now anyway." She added the last bit quickly as Mei frowned.

"We wanted to talk to you about the test you had us do." Jirou said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Actually we wanted to talk to you about how you got the test set up, kero." Tsuyu clarified.

Mei blinked, tipping her head slightly in obvious confusion, "What do you mean?"

"We don't like how you got Mineta to volunteer." Ashido said flatly.

Mei's eyes fluttered like a camera taking pictures, "He seemed reluctant so I gave him a hug."

"You got Mineta to do it by shoving his head between your boobs!" Ashido said, her voice rising.

Mei looked stunned looking between the other two girls only to find them nodding along. "Was that wrong?"

"Mineta is a perv!" Ashido said in disgust, "The last thing we need is to encourage him!"

Jirou sneered, "He's been wandering around all week talking about your 'marshmallow heaven'. It's disgusting."

Tsuyu reached out and touched Mei's shoulder soothingly, "Didn't you notice the way he looked when you let him go?"

Mei shook her head, "No, I was just so happy I'd get to test out my babies on a target besides a tree. It was a really good example, wasn't it?" Her smile was pasted on, almost desperate.

"Watching Kaminari taze him was fun, and I'm glad I got the chance to take a shot at him, but I still don't think it was worth it." Jirou huffed, frustration seeping out, "He's been an even bigger creep since then, we were just lucky he wasn't in the dorm when we got back."

Mei stared at her for a long moment, "When you say he's a creep and a perv, what do you mean?"

Jirou groaned, her head falling into her hand, and Ashido looked just as frustrated, but Tsuyu kept a level head, "Kero, he's tried to peep on us through a hole into the women's bathroom, he tried to scale the wall to look at us while we were bathing during our summer camp, he tries to look up our skirts, and he's touched us in ways we don't like when he thought he could get away with it, and during our first final, he said his objective was to destroy Midnight's costume."

By the time Tsuyu was finished, Mei's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Then why is he still in the hero course? Doesn't your sensei know?"

There was a sullen silence. Jirou reclined in her seat, "I've heard Aizawa warn him, but we've either stopped him before he could do anything or didn't have any proof."

Ashido stared at the floor, "I'm worried he's letting him stay to help prepare us for the 'real world'."

Mei stared into the middling distance, "I won't do it again." Before any of them could respond she stood up so abruptly the chair she was sitting on fell backwards, "I need to leave."

She fled from the room without another word.

Most of 1-A liked to sleep in a bit on Sunday, they needed it to recover before the next grueling week of training. So the knock on Ashido's door came as an unpleasant surprise to her. Even more frustrating was that it clearly wasn't an accident, because it persisted even after she pushed her pillow around her head and shouted for whoever it was to knock it off.

She got up out of sheer frustration and stomped over, already planning to punish whoever was interrupting her beauty rest, and threw the door open to reveal Mei. Ashido's eyes narrowed dangerously at the girl, but Mei maintained a wide smile under the dark bags under her eyes. "Hi!"

Ashido glowered at her. "What. Do. You. Want?" She ground out, "I was sleeping."

Mei blinked owlishly and checked a convoluted device on her wrist that was probably a watch and a few others things. "It's nine thirty." Ashido's eyes narrowed to a flat line of hatred. Mei didn't sense her doom approaching though. "The others are all downstairs in common room."

"What others?" Ashido hissed, and felt hatred like she rarely felt rise within her as Mei took a moment to yawn.

"The other girls," Mei answered, a small smile on her lips, "come on, we're waiting for you."

Ashido glowered at her for a few more seconds before tossing her hands up in defeat, "Fine. I'll come downstairs." Mei's grin widened and Ashido's lip curled in disgust, "Just let me get changed…"

A few minutes later she walked into the common room to see the rest of the girls from 1-A, save Hagakure of course, lounging on the common room couches, a box sitting at the edge of the coffee table. Mei gestured for her to sit and stood in the center like the showwoman she was. "Thank you all for coming!" She chirped and Ashido glowered at her again.

"Get to the point Mei." Jirou groaned, clearly just as irritated to be awake at this hour as Ashido had been.

She might as well not have spoken for all the reaction Mei gave. The inventor smiled, "Yesterday I was told that you were having an issue with one of your classmates. I am here today to provide a solution!" With a flourish she lifted the box to reveal seven blue bags embroidered with Hatsume Industries and their names. "I present to you, Hatsume Industries PPP kit!"

There was an exchanging of glances but Hagakure took the lead, "PPP?"

"Pervert Prevention Package!" Mei answered cheerily, and opened the kit with her name on it, "Inside each bag I have various inventions to deter further unwanted attention."

She pulled out a pair of somewhat gaudy looking brass bracelets and grinned, aware that she had her audience's undivided attention, "These bracelets aren't just fashionable," Something that the girls immediately doubted, "they also double as discreet pepper spray dispensers." She slipped hers onto her wrist and held her arm up, pointing to a gear at the center, "Pressing this button will release a mist of pepper spray at whatever is in front of you." She lowered her arm and, to the relief of the girls in attendance, pointed away before firing off a burst of acrid fog. Mei turned back, grinning like the madwoman she was, "Each bracelet will contain three bursts before needing to be refilled."

"That's… nice." Uraraka said cautiously.

Tsuyu placed a finger to her lips, "Does it have to look like a gear?"

Mei shook her head quickly, "Nope! I can customize them later, but I wanted to get these to you today. We can go over any designs you'd like, I just need to be able to stick a small container in."

"Well that was very… nice of you Mei. I'm sure we'll put them to good use." Yaoyorozu offered, despite hoping she wouldn't need to.

"Assuming he hasn't developed an immunity." Jirou snarked.

Mei just grinned, "Well if he has, then the next piece should have an effect on him!" She pulled out a bra.

The girls stared at her in mounting horror as she put it on without bothering to remove her shirt, "I'm calling this a shock bra. The outer layer is a touch sensitive pad that will deliver half a microcoulomb to anyone who touches it."

"That's…" Yaoyorozu's face screwed up in concentration, "about half the strength of a stun gun?"

Mei's face lit up, "You would have been great in support. I guess I'm lucky I'm not competing against you."

"I'm not so sure about that one…" Uraraka murmured, "how do we keep from shocking ourselves?"

The other girls began to nod in agreement, and Mei scrambled to get them back, "Well, the center of the bra is an insulator, so someone else touching you still won't shock you. And the interior of the bra is another touch sensitive pad so the exterior shock pad will only be active as long as the interior is filled. That way you won't get shocked when you grab it from your drawer."

"I guess that works…" Yaoyorozu murmured, still far from certain, "but could you perhaps lower the output?"

"Of course." Mei confirmed.

"Then could you increase the power output?" Tsuyu asked, drawing a concerned look from Uraraka.

Mei's smile turned just a bit feral, "Of course."

"I think we're still dancing around an issue here." Jirou said with a sigh, "Bras aren't one size fits all Mei."

"Oh," Mei chuckled, "we have all of your measurements recorded in the support department so they should all fit just fine."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that." Hagakure replied, her discomfort mirrored by the rest of the 1-A girls.

"I guess I'd give it a try." Ashido murmured, thinking of the purple pervert making a move only to get a Kaminari treatment. She'd just have to be careful about making adjustments. And hugs. On the other hand, she might be able to use hugs to her advantage…

"Hey guys." Kirishima walked into the common room, heading for the kitchen and stopped when he spotted Mei wearing a bra outside of her shirt. "Uh…" He cleared his throat as he realized the rest of the girls were staring at him, "I-I should probably go…"

Mei blinked, and her eyes lit up, "Oh! Come touch my bra."

"No Mei." Yaoyorozu stated sharply, as Kirishima stumbled backwards stammering refusals.

"What?" Mei asked, "It'd just be a demonstration, and I'm asking."

"Just… no. Kirishima, go to the kitchen." Their red haired and faced classmate retreated quickly and Mei pouted. The class vice rep sighed, "Mei, I appreciate that you came up with these inventions for us, but I'm not sure about that one."

"Speak for yourself." Tsuyu countered, drawing more startled glances, "He hasn't groped you." Yaoyorozu opened and closed her mouth, but finally shook her head. Tsuyu looked at Mei, "I'll be wearing mine, kerro."

The inventor nodded, "Well, there's only one more piece right now, but I will be working on more!" She pulled out a small, grooved cylinder that looked vaguely like a bike handle. "I call this a Yeeting stick."

Jirou raised an eyebrow, "A Yeeting stick?"

"Yup." Mei confirmed, "If you can't repel him with the mace or shock him into stopping, then this should work." With a flick of her wrist the cylinder extended, revealing a metal baton, "Simply hit him with this and he should go flying."

Uraraka broke the silence, "That's it?"

Mei smirked, "Well… it does have another application." She pushed the baton back into place, "If you can't open it up by swinging it up, there's a button at the bottom. Simply press it and-" The baton shot out with shocking speed, "-it should be enough to yeet him away."

Ashido stared for a second, "Hey Kirishima, come back out here, we need you to test something!"

Mei left half an hour later to get some sleep (in the lab, of course), leaving each with their newly rechristened Pervert Punishment Package (Jirou's suggestion). There was still some debate as to which pieces each girl would use, though the Yeeting stick seemed to have universal appeal. The fact it was capable of sending Kirishima flying sold them on it. Thankfully their classmate accepted it with good humor, claiming it was just more training, and then thanked them in turn when they stopped Mei from giving him a thank you hug… with her shock bra still on.

Of all of them though, only Tsuyu admitted she was going to use all three pieces. A silence descended at that, Uraraka placing a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. Yaoyorozu frowned.

"Tsuyu, I know you said you don't have any evidence that he touched you, and I understand that you said you didn't want to dwell on it, but would you like to make a report to Aizawa?" The class vice rep tried to offer a comforting smile, "We'll all go with you." The rest of the girls jumped to agree.

"It's not like we don't have our own experiences with the purple shitstain." Jirou agreed with a sneer.

"Mei making these for us should show that this has already gone way too far." Uraraka admitted.

Tsuyu let out a breath and nodded, "Let's go talk with Aizawa."

Author's Notes: No, I haven't forgotten about Analytics. This is one of the side stories I've had planned since Mei visited 1-A back in chapter 4. Her little demonstration was actually going to be included in the story, along with the hug that inspired this one, but it didn't feel right so I cut it. But the thought remained, and I knew I wanted to put this in. This isn't the only side story for this, but it may be the one with a mini-arc. Expect slow updates for this one as I don't want it to get too far ahead of Analytics proper.

Also, I am fully aware that the shock bra wouldn't work with their hero costumes so it wouldn't have helped Tsuyu, but really, it's the thought that counts. If you want an idea for what the Yeeting stick will do to Mineta, think Team Rocket at the end of nearly every episode.