Chapter 13

The three of us sat around a table in the cafeteria with my phone out in front of me.

"Alright, I'm calling him," I said as I tapped the call button. I still couldn't believe how ridiculous it was that I had the CEO's contact and that the Yaoyorozu family had enough presence in the upper circles for them to trust that I'd be worth the time if Yaoyorozu had said so. Is that what it was like being at the top? I decided then and there that I'd be one of them.

Even if it means marrying into the family.

Indeed. That was one of the faster ways in.

Fact remained, though, that I'd need to move hearts of more than just my interest. But that was a thought for another day.

All of us held our breaths when the call was picked.

"Hello, is this Shizuwa-san?" I asked in scarcely hidden disbelief.

"Yes, who might this be?"

"Shizuwa-san, this is Korai Haru from UA. I believe Yaoyorozu-san had talked about me being an intern at your firm?"

"Ah, yes, yes, Korai-kun." The voice of the CEO switched to a much friendlier tone. "Yaoyorozu-san did mention you. He seemed to be quite pleased with your interest in our firm; I must admit I'm curious as to what kind of person could get that person to praise as much as you have gotten him to."

I raised an eyebrow at Momo as I lightly laughed. "He must have exaggerated. I am but a regular student at UA. In fact, I must admit I was surprised to see SRI being one of the firms to have applied to pick me. I wasn't aware research firms also are a part of the organizations that can apply to UA to pick interns."

"Oh, we apply every year, but we rarely get any interns from the hero course. Most often, we get interns from the support course and business course of UA. I was surprised when Yaoyorozu-san reached out to me about a potential intern from the hero course."

Momo shrugged at my raised eyebrow.

I laughed at the CEO's words. "Well, I guess that both of us got pleasant surprises then. I look forward to working with SRI, given that I want my future career to be in quirk research."

"Welcome to SRI! We look forward to working with you, Korai-kun."

With that welcome, we said our goodbyes and disconnected. I sent Momo a look that basically said 'Holy shit, you crazy woman.'

Momo simply smirked. "Got anything to say, Haru-chan?"

"Not chan!"

The first day of my internship week came all too soon. It started pretty much the way I expected it to: introductions on both sides, quick overview of what the institute does, who the trailblazers in the field are and so on and so forth.

The real interesting work didn't start until the second day. There was a total of four interns including me. I didn't know the other three except for the fact each was from a different school and each were from business, media and support courses. When I told them I was from UA Hero course, they looked at me like I had grown five heads.

"You can't be serious choosing a research institute over a hero firm!" One of them exclaimed.

I stared back at him humourously. "As you can see, I am pretty serious."

Unfortunately, they wouldn't understand how incredibly useful it is understanding and analyzing quirks on the go. I was looking forward to using my knowledge to enhance 1-A like nobody's business.

My project ended up being researching the quirk gene factor. I could not believe I was being given a straight lottery ticket to understanding everyone's quirks (including AFO if I'd get the time or the chance to) and the way they work. Well, as much as I could apply the knowledge I'd gain here.

First, I had to take the time to understand genetics.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

I looked up at my mentor with confusion. "What?"

"Aren't you stuck at wondering why your quirk works the way it works? Weren't you trying to see what it was that prevented you from freely moving air like you want to? Test it! Experiment with it!"

I blinked a couple of times. "Are you saying I should use my quirk instead of just speculating?"

"Well, isn't that what the internship is all about? Why waste any time?"

Why waste any time, indeed. I must be pretty dumb to have forgotten that it was an internship and therefore, I was officially allowed to use my quirk in controlled ways.

I walked to a nearby desk where the microscope was kept. I placed a small, modified smoking machine near the observing lens and started it, letting the smoke pass in front of the lens. Then I peered through the eyepiece.

It took some time to find the right focus for the lens. With that out of the way, I focused with my quirk. One thing that I was always curious about when I realized what my quirk was, was that I couldn't separate the gases that make up air. When I used my quirk, I could only move air as an entity; I couldn't sense or separate nitrogen, oxygen, etc. Why was that the case?

Well, that's the answer I was looking for.

I wasn't sure what I was doing was correct but I figured I should start somewhere first. If I were to be wrong, my mentor would help me out. Or I would ask her to help me out.

For the time being though, I was thinking about how smoke moved when I used my quirk. Was it pushed when I moved air? Could I directly move it with my quirk? I highly doubted the latter one given that smoke really was just suspended particles in air. But it never hurt to check, especially when I had the means to do so. Later on, I was going to try and see if I could move individual gas molecules from air. How I was going to do that remained to be seen.

I glanced at the screen which was attached to the microscope. The smoke particles were visibly moving around on the screen—fairly normal; there was a slight draft every time I moved and it showed.

I focused on the smoke right under the microscope lens with my quirk and continued staring at the screen to see the smallest changes that happened. Quite in line with my expectations, the smoke particles moved out of the way as if being pushed by an invisible force (which was technically true), but they weren't moving as I was controlling them; they were acting as if they were being pushed.

The difference in those two movements is minor but twelve years with your quirk gives you an instinctual idea if your quirk is affecting a thing directly or indirectly.

I mulled over the finding for barely a moment. I already knew it; I just needed the evidence and the confirmation. Now that I had it, I had to think about how I'd see the molecules in the air. That was, quite frankly, impossible. I wouldn't be able to focus the microscope on a thing that's nanometres across and constantly whizzing around.

Hmmm, perhaps seeing wasn't the only way to check this… but what could I do then? Another thought crossed my mind: if I could move air, I could sure as hell freeze it in its place. That would help a lot. In fact, it would help a hell lot. I would be able to see just exactly how air clumps when I freeze it.

'Why'd I not thought of that before?'

I immediately set to work. But first, I needed an electron microscope. That was the one that could be used to see atoms, right? A quick chat with my mentor netted me one along with the handler. I didn't know how to use one, after all, and one week wasn't going to be enough to learn it… On second thought, I was probably overestimating the learning curve. But that's not the topic of discussion for now.

Once everything was set, I quickly froze the air in front of the microscope lens, and switched the microscope on. With me sat my mentor to observe the proceedings and help me out if needed.

The screen displayed what I could describe as something one can see only once in a lifetime. Because, you know, not many have the power to stop air from moving. We could see every single molecule in the air frozen, hanging in space like I had forced it to. But the most interesting thing wasn't that.

The most interesting thing was that every single frozen clump of molecules had about 7 nitrogen molecules and 2 oxygen molecules. Some of the clumps also had a carbon dioxide molecule; I guessed the presence at about 1 every 30 or so clumps. That was interesting.

"Let me try to break those clumps up, Sensei," I said as I focused one of the clumps. And quite in line with my initial thought when I saw the clumps, I could not, for the life of me, break those clumps apart.

Air has about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, and the rest being other gases of which carbon dioxide had the highest proportion—in a city, that is; otherwise, Argon is more prominent. The clumps followed the same proportion at molecular level at which I could control them. I could not break apart my control any further, and this was an interesting observation for me.

Firstly, it told me why I could not separate or sense gases like I'd have liked to. Secondly, it told me how my quirk interacted with its subject of application i.e., air. It made the molecules clump up in the approximate proportion of 'air' so I could actually move it. The latter part was mostly speculation but it did make sense with the way I had been using my quirk so far in my life.

Thirdly, it gave me an idea of what exactly I was doing when I was making compressed air bombs. It wasn't just the usual compression energy that exploded when I released the pressure. I tried it on a smaller scale in front of the electron microscope and what I saw surprised me. When I compressed the air, the pressure threatened to break apart the clumps that my quirk formed—directly contrary to what the quirk wanted to do. My mentor described it as quirk potential energy. And that energy was also released alongside the regular release of compression pressure. It led to a much higher blast power and radius for the same amount of air.

Basically, quirk-compressed air explosion would be magnitudes larger than regular-compressed air explosion.

'Cool!'

And now with the knowledge of quirk potential energy… well, what could I do now? Not much for sure. There probably were applications but I wouldn't see them until I come across them. Also, the presence of this energy explained the quirk transfer power of AFO. I'd probably still need to see how genetics were affected by his power; I'd probably need a willing test subject.

Poor, poor Aoyama was going to suffer under my sharp gaze.

I cackled maniacally in my mind.

For now though, I wanted to focus more on my own quirk and its applications. Especially the more violent ones that I executed against Tokoyami.

"Nakamura-sensei," I turned towards my mentor, "Is there a way we can 'see' what I can do with air? Other than the smoke, that is."

"Well, not really," she said, a frown creasing her face as her brain turned its gears. "There's no real way to see molecules other than the electron microscope to see it at a micro level and smoke at a macro level. Unless, of course, you happen to know someone with a magnifying quirk with no limitation." She chuckled lightly as she said the last part.

"If only it were that easy!" I laughed along with her. Then, I presented my thought process to her. "You see, back at the UA sports festival, I managed to solidify air in a javelin or spear-like form long enough for it to pass through the air and hit Tokoyami—that bird-headed guy—in his chest… 'Hit' is putting it pretty lightly really."

A look of understanding crossed her face; she must have seen the fight. "Oh, for that, smoke is probably the best bet we have. I think you can still create that, right? Can you hold it in place?"

"Well, I did manage to-"

"I mean in your hand."

I stared at her for a second before trying that very thing. Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold the air spear even if I held it in place. I mean, the concentration required to keep air in place like that was difficult enough to garner, but to be able to handle and adjust strength of my quirk in proportion with the variation of pressure due to my hold on it…? That sounded like a monumental task.

And probably a prologue of the training I were to endure if I were the MC. 'God, I can just see myself being lazy about this…'

As I stared at the invisible spear in my hand, I wondered if what I was doing was worth the pain I'd endure in the future. I mean, yeah, once I found Izuku, I did decide to support him and be his 'catalyst', but this—what I was doing in this internship—was turning out to be far more interesting. The personal vested interest I had in Izuku was fading into an impersonal one. I could see that if I were to continue with this (and it was my original goal to begin with), I would only support Izuku because if I didn't, society would collapse due to quirk singularity. And AFO.

Mainly the latter.

I must have been frowning because Nakamura-sensei asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I replied, shaking my head with a slight smile. "Just thinking about the future."

"Already? Not many at your age do."

I smirked, amused. "I am not among the many."

'Quite literally at that, y'know?'

Nakamura-sensei simply shook her head in mock dejection. "And here I thought you were here to learn something."

"I am here to learn something!"

At that moment, her phone rang. She excused herself and picked up the call. I shrugged to myself and decided to use the method she had suggested.

The smoke machine was soon set up and ready to go along with a slow-motion camera. (I could not believe how rich the firm was despite the lack of interest from the hero course students. Really, the hero-brained idiots could do well from doing a short internship here where they could test away their quirk with all the available high-end equipment. Understanding quirks and how they affected their environment was the fastest way to ensure you could make the most out of your own quirk.)

Then I waited. I needed a quirk expert in Nakamura-sensei to observe and help me with my observations.

Nakamura-sensei soon came back with a smile on her face.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Something good happened?"

"Quite," she replied with a quick smile. "The poster girl of SRI is coming here."

It took me a moment to understand what she meant. Then, it hit me. "Wait, you mean Melissa Shield?"

"Yep. She's landing tomorrow and will be visiting us the day after."

'No way was I going to meet yet another VIP,' I thought instantly. But I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

For me, she would be the easiest ticket into the world of research.

Boy, ho boy! Life's been hell no other.

Well, not really, I am just exaggerating but you get the idea. Being busy does not mean you should drop the story. Just take your time and update it slowly.

Yeah, I'm not making much sense. Because I'm too sleepy. It's fucking Saturday tomorrow and I still have to wake up to go to my job. Sad stuff really.

Signing out!