Chapter 27: Manual's Manual to Internships
Manual led them into the agency building with a welcoming grin on his face even as sidekicks hustled around them.
The room was painted light blue with natural wood trim. The dark blue carpeted floors complimented the white cubicles where people were working hard either on the computers or answering calls on their headsets. Along the walls were several houseplants with natural wooden hanging shelves holding potted plants high above.
Several portraits of drawings that seemed more random despite the blue and green theme of the room. It felt like the portraits were bought randomly like they were found at a thrift store or donated to them.
"This is the Manual agency," Manual gestured with his wide open arms to introduce the place to them. He turned to them with the grin still on his face. "This week, you will learn directly from me."
"Thankfully, I only have a bit of training planned for today. I'll bring you to the training room after a short tour," Manual continued, walking past the outer walls of cubicles. "And tomorrow is when I will bring you both out for patrol."
Izuku hummed, crossing his arms behind his head, "I'm curious. Why did you choose us for the internships?"
"I chose you two for my interns because of two different reasons. I chose Iida because I felt similar to him," Manual answered. "And I chose you because the way you fought during the festival was smart yet careful."
"Ah," Izuku nodded, intrigued by a shelf with a hedgehog-shaped vase. "So you said something about a tour?"
"Ah, right! Um, I'm a little rusty on being a tour guide," Manual cleared his throat and gestured to the lines of cubicles where groups of people were steadily working at their own pace. "Here is the cubicle office space. It's a more open layout so it doesn't feel as suffocating as a regular office building."
Manual raised his finger like he was listing off an important fact, "That's important to know when you have your own agency in the future. You need to make sure everyone working with you is comfortable in the work environment."
"That's logical," Iida stated as they continued to walk past the lines of plants.
"Next we have the bathrooms. There should be three separate bathrooms on this floor right by the elevator towards the back. You should see them right near the flower vase painting," Manual pointed in the direction quickly, letting their eyes stay in that direction before gesturing with his hand towards a nearby room. "This is the break room where everyone can store their lunches or get refreshments."
Manual guided the two past the busy area, stopping briefly to pick up a pen one of the workers had dropped on the floor. He gave it to the employee as they passed by.
"Now I'll just guide you both upstairs where the training room is. When we get there, I can determine how much I can teach you."
Iida glanced at his friend to see Izuku watching the area intently as they continued past a door leading to a stairwell. In the stairwell, a fake vine was curled around each step like it was solely responsible for holding it up.
"Is there any reason why your inner office is covered in plants?"
"Yeah. When I hired my interior designer, I said I liked plants and gardening as a hobby. But they took it a little more..." Manual glanced up at the vines hanging from the inner ceiling of the stairwell, swinging down from the middle area. "... heavier than I originally thought."
"Is it all real?" Iida asked, looking down at the mixture of vines, it almost looked like the green vines were braided together. It reminded him of the overflowing mint vines that his mother was trying to grow in her own garden.
Manual made a so-so gesture with his hand, "A mix. The ones in the first floor office area are real. Anything from the stairwell and up is a mix of real and fake. The ones in the training room and the stairwell are fake. But the other ones are real, especially the ones in my office and the mini garden."
"There's a miniature garden?" Izuku asked with a slight head tilt, poking at one of the vines to feel the plasticky fabric underneath the small leaves.
"It's not what you might think," Manual chuckled as he reached the last steps. "It's just a little space in the second floor's break room. It's just two little spots for succulents and cactuses right by the window."
"And. We're right here," Manual said, gesturing to the glass wall behind him with gym equipment to one side and a free space of mats on the other side. Iida turned his head to see that the glass wall ended farther down and extended into a hallway. The training room must not take up that much space on the second floor.
"This is the training room," Manual introduced the room by opening a side door right next to the stairwell door that led straight into the training room. Iida walked in followed by Izuku right on his heels.
Izuku looked straight up once he spotted the hanging vines once again. "Tenya."
"Yes?" Iida turned his head only to see his friend's finger pointed above him.
"I already see the vines... Oh," Iida said, raising his head to view the fake vines only to discover the lack of ceiling. Upon first glance, he didn't notice the netting or rock wall on the back of the wall or the large wide platforms leading further up.
"That's one of my favorite features," Manual admitted, pointing up at the large expanse. "The designer knocked out parts of the third floor to make this happen. But don't worry, it's completely safe up there for people inside and outside the training room."
"Wow, it's very impressive," Izuku said, walking deeper inside the room towards the training mats.
"I haven't seen a training room quite like this one," Iida admitted almost subconsciously after Izuku.
The training was more strict than he was expecting from Manual. Even though he was ranked in the 200 area, he made sure to instruct them exactly on what they could do and how they could do it.
Manual suggested a more versatile training for Izuku since he mainly used support gear and weapons along with martial arts. So Iida spotted his friend almost all over the gym, taking notes while Manual talked about certain styles he would use during battles with his water for both offense and defense.
When it was his turn, Manual focused on getting him to train a more defensive part of his quirk since his powerful legs were enough of an offensive side.
Manual watched over them with minimal breaks in between to check on his sidekicks below to see if there was any huge trouble that needed him to step in.
After the training, Manual invited both of them to his office, so they could file their first day of the internship. It was just a little paperwork that details what they have learned on each day of their internship.
Manual's office was not what Iida expected. There was a yoga mat rolled up in the very corner behind a potted plant in the corner. There was a large bookcase beside the potted plant with multiple books lined up on the shelves. It paired well with the long table with wall shelves of some scattered awards.
His main desk was right in front of the large window at the very back with curtains pulled to both sides.
Yet on the other side of the wall had no furniture except for a loveseat. The only decor on the wall was decorated with pages and drawings from young children.
"Manual, why do you...?" Iida started to say, motioning towards the wall.
Manual paused at his desk, his gaze landed on the decorated wall that looked like a collage of children's drawings. "The fan letters? Well, I know it might seem a bit impractical to have them all on the wall like this but," Manual sighed at the sight, leaving the two papers at his desk to walk closer. "Sometimes the job isn't all it's cracked up to be."
Upon looking closer, one could see how many written words were dedicated to thanking Manual and just how many had little childish scrawl drawings.
"I made this so I can look at all of the things my fans had sent me, the kids who look up to me. And that's what inspires me to continue with my job," Manual answered. He smiled at the wall with an honest look in his eyes. "But I always wanted to be a pro hero, so I could be a role model to kids just like me."
Lodging was only one of the many things many pro hero internships will provide.
With each internship, the pro heroes agree to take care of the interns during the week in many ways including providing food, drink, supervised training, and shelter.
In Manual's case, he set up two rooms in a hotel for both of his interns that was within a short walking distance of the hero agency.
Yet that doesn't explain why Iida was looking at Izuku standing outside his front door knowing that his friend had a reserved room right next door.
He pinched the space between his eyebrows and felt the softness of his eye mask that was pushed to his forehead. Iida straightened out his glasses since he had rushed to put them on to see who was at his door. He sighed, "Shouldn't you be resting already, Izuku?"
"I couldn't sleep that well, so I can come here for an impromptu sleepover. Just like old times," Izuku said, clutching a pillow under his arm. His pajamas laid on his chest without a wrinkle from the soft cotton material it was made from.
Iida raised an eyebrow as Izuku slid past him right into his hotel room without a single pause to ask permission. He sighed before shutting the door behind him. "Old times? You mean last summer break?"
"Ah, good old times." Izuku kept walking until he found a satisfactory spot with a chair nestled into a corner right by the mounted television.
Iida chuckled before he asked, "Did you at least lock your door?"
"Of course," Izuku replied. "Have you checked the class group chat?"
The group chat was started on Mina's insistence. But it took a while to get everyone's phone number in the chat with Shinso and Bakugo being the most reluctant to be added to it. But now, all of the class was accounted for in the chat 'in case of emergencies'.
Yet the chat was mostly spammed with memes for most of the time. Most of them come from Kaminari.
"I haven't. Did something bad happen?" Iida questioned.
Iida patiently listened to Izuku talk about whatever their classmates were saying on the group chat, Iida wouldn't know since he muted the chat because of how many of his fellow peers were going back and forth in the dead of night. Surprisingly, Shinso was the most talkative during the night compared to how he is during the day.
Izuku went on about how Hagakure sent a link to a Dabi fanfiction right after Shoto had mentioned about his first day patrolling with him. Iida prepared a glass of water for his friend since he would undoubtedly stay for the night from the way that Izuku is getting comfortable inside his room.
"And now everybody is commenting—I feel terrible for the author— in the story. They are just finding each other in the comments," Izuku explained as he scrolled up on his phone screen. "Okay, Momo is freaking out since she didn't realize it was explicit. Mina is asking for recommendations in the group chat. And Shoto keeps leaving the group no matter how many times Mina invites him back in."
"How are their internships? Have they said anything?"
"I said that our first day was relatively easier than I thought it would be. Uraraka said that she is a bit sore from all the moves she is learning. Jirou has a headache from overuse. Kirishima is having a blast with the Fourth Kind. Tsuyu posted a picture with her on a boat. Ooh, that's a good sunset. And Momo is with Midnight and has a lot of nice things to say about her," Izuku hurriedly scrolled up. "She wrote three whole paragraphs about her experience with her."
Izuku flipped his phone around to show the weakness of text on his screen. Iida leaned forward to read the words under his breath, "Ah, she sounds appreciative from her description of her time."
Izuku nodded back at him. "I'm just glad she didn't end up with Uwabami at the end. Auntie might rely on the appeal of her persona, but I knew she would help."
"Apart from the class group chat, Monoma got picked up for an internship that he won't tell me the details about," Izuku explained, flicking his phone away from his face at an angle. "But Hatsume is finishing up the first prototype of Hagakure's new hero costume while working on her other inventions."
"I'm glad everyone is having a good time." Except for Shoto right now.
"Ooh, Koda sent a picture of his rabbit," Izuku awed at the photo, thrusting the screen towards Iida's face with a pout. "They're so adorable."
With a happy sigh, Izuku muted the group chat and turned his full attention back on him. Iida looked back at him and slowly raised his eyebrow.
Iida blinked, "What?"
"Nothing," Izuku shrugged, turning his attention to the television. He threw himself from the chair onto the couch, patting the seat next to him. "Hey, let's watch a movie. There should be a movie somewhere on television."
"Shouldn't we be practicing the moves we learned today instead?" Iida asked as he slowly sat down next to Izuku without hesitance.
Izuku paused, then nodded with a serious look, "Good idea. I'll search up martial arts movies, so we can copy the styles from their choreography."
"I don't think I have half as good of memory as you do," Iida said, remembering how easily Izuku can pick up a move just by watching it a few times.
"You're just trying to flatter me," Izuku said, as the television screen came on. His fingers flying on the remote, flipping through channels on the main menu screen to try and find a perfect movie to watch.
Iida waited until his friend would say something. Anything about what might come during the week. About what could happen if the hero killer was somewhere close to them.
And yet, as he remembered the deathly serious expression from Izuku, he had little to no doubts that Izuku would be there beside him.
And Shoto would be there too, especially when Iida checked later that night when Izuku fell asleep. After seeing how many links Mina recommended in the chat before making a separate one for the girls, Iida can understand why exactly Shoto had left the chat almost 9 times.