"Miss Rose, would you pass me the sprocket wrench? I'm going to be disassembling a few bits of the armor here and I'm afraid I need that."

"Sure, no problem Tenya, I really don't need it today anyway all things considered. Could you pass me a few of your screwdrivers? Preferably the longer blade screwdrivers, flat head."

"Flat head hmmm? Interesting, though I'd have to ask why you'd go through with screws when I have to imagine that there's better ways of securing that to Crescent Rose that'd hold stronger under the conditions you're putting the weapon under."

"Well first off it's the scope so it's not like it's going to be taken most of the impact of either Crescent Rose's firing or me swinging it around, for one, and for another point it's easier to use some makeshift tools in order to unscrew something with a flat, linear notch if I need to make a quick repair out in the field. If, by some chance, the screws go out then I'm only losing out on a scope in the middle of the fight until I get time to recover it later... on the other hand, if the scope breaks and I can't easily detach it from Crescent Rose without some fancy tools, then I'm pretty much out any long-distance sniper fire for the entirety of a mission, or at least until I can get the necessary tools. No, simple is better here for potential field repairs."

"Fair enough, I hadn't thought about it from that angle. My armor rarely breaks under extreme circumstances... but then it's made of layers of metal and not glass... well, most of it anyway. So I don't quite have to worry as much about field repairs... although, all things considered, maybe I should start making preparations for that; if I ever go out into a rural or wilderness assignment, I'd essentially become dead weight should anything fail in my armor that'd require more than rudimentary or simplistic tools to fix."

"No harm in staying an Urban Hunter, though. I know Yang would probably really like only moving around big cities and seeing the sights there as part of your team, and Blake seems like that'd be a good fit for her too."

"Mmm, I wouldn't be so sure; Blake's actually got a knack for wilderness survival, tracking and stealth so she's quite capable there... and then there's Tsuyu who feels most at home in the wilderness. As much as I might ask for them to make allowances for us to work together well in an Urban environment, I need to do the same of myself so that we can work in a rural or wilderness environment, otherwise we're wasting Blake and Tsuyu's talents to a certain extent. So I'll need to start considering how I might better structure my armor so that I can more easily make field repairs to it..."

...

"Uuuuh... hi guys?"

Of all the things Izuku might've expected walking into the forge... okay, honestly, he should have expected that. Between Mei, Ruby and Tenya, Izuku knew quite a few people in his own peer group who worked very hard in terms of engineering and fixing things up. Heck, even Yang was a bit of a hand when it came to tools and equipment, though he never really got the chance to see her do stuff like that because she mostly worked on her motorcycle in Beacon's garage, whereas anytime he wanted to polish or repair Emerald Gust he came here. So whenever Izuku walked into the armory, Izuku was quite used to listening to people talk to themselves about what repaired they were making; heck, Mei often muttered to herself about her 'babies' while she was working in here.

Izuku'd just never really had the opportunity to listen to two or more of his friends talk about that stuff with each other before... honestly, his head kind of hurt as he tried to wrap his mind around what Ruby had just explained. The fact that Tenya was practically shoulder deep in his own armor as he slowly took various interior pieces apart while setting them off to the side on the table while Ruby carefully handled various lenses and scope structures didn't help his slight intimidation much. Nonetheless, as He spoke up he watched as two sets of eyes immediately snapped over to him. Tenya offered him a firm, if friendly, wave while Ruby broke out into a small smile as she quickly stood up.

"Deku, hey! Did you just get here?"

"Greetings Izuku, how are you doing today?"

"Uh, yeah, I did and I'm doing alright. Just stopping by to do some maintenance on Emerald Gust. Thought if Mei was here I might ask her about some things but, well." The two of them nodded as they put their tools to the side, the two walking up to Izuku as he set Emerald Gust down on the table, boots and gauntlets both.

"Oh that's neat! I was just working on an upgrade for Crescent Rose's scope; after I made that scope for Pyrrha, I figured it was about time I got around to fine-tuning Crescent Rose's long-distance capabilities too. Right now my girl's doing just fine lopping off heads, but right now the scope's a bit of an issue..."

"Huh? Not giving you the range you're looking for?"

"Yeah, but not in the way you're probably thinking; Crescent Rose is great from a distance and if I just modeled by new Scope after Pyrrha's it'd be even better... buuut that's only going to make the fact that I really can't use my scope from closer distances even worse." Ruby, experimentally, brought up one of the scopes she's been working on and hands it off to Izuku. He blinked for a moment before bringing it up to his eyes and-

"Holy woah, this thing zooms in close! If it weren't so blurry I think I could see inside your pores!" Ruby nodded as she took the scope back.

"Yeah; I really don't need to see every last hair on a Grimm's body when I'm trying to aim at them from not so far away but right now it's either my naked eye or the scope, no middle ground. So I'm working on trying to build a more comprehensive scope, something that'll have multiple lens that start a little bit closer than miles away." Izuku nodded before turning to Tenya.

"What about you Tenya? Working on something for your armor?" Tenya nodded as he turned back to his suit, his hands gesturing as he pointed out various aspects.

"Indeed: my time in the Tunnels helped make me acutely aware of how little my armor does for enhancing my physical capabilities beyond my speed and my ability to take hits. While Nora and I were very much capable of performing our... combination..." Izuku and Ruby choked down chuckled as Tenya seemed to shiver a bit, the young man readjusting his glasses. "It drained me quite a bit; right now most of what my armor is built around concerns the legs; the engines there greatly enhance my speed and give me some unique ability to dodge around or even empower my strikes, especially if I turn the throttle all the way on..." Tenya reached his hands up for his chin as he observed the rest of the armor.

"However, in terms of my strength or what I'm capable of carrying on me, the armor's mostly a net loss. It's probably not hard to imagine that it's heavy and, without the engines and the Wind Dust that powers them, it's probably no surprise that I'd be slowed down by it." Izuku and Ruby nodded as Tenya started rapidly gesturing again. "If I'm to be a proper Hero and Hunter and save people, I can't have the combined strain of the people I might carry on my back and the armor be too much for me to handle long-term. So I've aimed to somehow upgrade the design so that the armor supports my physical capabilities further..." Tenya reached around inside and, Izuku noticed that there was measuring tape inside a bit of the armor, some rough calculations written on a notebook nearby.

"The obvious answer, and the most low-tech one, would be hydraulics; using pistons and pumps in unison with my own muscles to enhance my strength. However, those can be bulky and the redesign I'd have to put my armor under would likely not be worth the final product. So I've been considering extending the lines that pump my Engine's Dust throughout my armor. In the same way that Wind Dust in the engines can give me a kick of speed and help me keep up despite the armor's weight, some negatively charged Gravity Dust here and there would lighten it elsewhere... and if I were to put that on the correct charge again at the right moment, it'd enhance my normal striking capabilities. Of course... well, there's opportunities and dangers that go along with that; my engines produce a great deal of heat as is, after all."Izuku and Ruby nodded, the rest of Tenya's thoughts having gone unsaid as he stood back up from his armor, rolling his neck out slightly.

...

'I kind of understand what he's saying?'

"What about you, Izuku?" Izuku blinked, his confusion and partial haze parting as Tenya looked back at his, the young man's usually frantic hands busy as he wiped them down with a bit of cloth.

"Me?"

"Yeah; you said you were going to try to ask Mei about some things if she was here and, well, knowing her..." The three of them paused for a moment and, in perfect unison, nodded in understanding.

"It's safe to assume that you mean some kind of upgrade. I have to admit, I'm a little surprised; your weapon being so similar to Miss Xiao Long's, I would figure your focus would be in much the same place; martial arts over the hardware." Despite the way it might've come off, Tenya seemed more interested than disapproving as he spoke, his hands having swung about a bit before they settled on his chin.

"Yeah Deku! Come on, don't leave is in the dark; what are you gonna do to your darling... girls, boys, I don't know how you'd classify Emerald Gust." Ruby's energy ran out for a moment as she realized the awkwardness in trying to translate her own affection for Crescent Rose to Emerald Gust.

"Well... I mean, that's kind of hard for me to say, because I really don't do this whole thing like you all do. I'm not much of an engineer... heck, I really don't even make any of the parts for Emerald Gust myself. So I was thinking maybe something simple to change up or to pay someone else to make some other changes." The other two nodded as they listen in as he pointed down to Emerald Gust. "So something I was thinking was replacing the pellet ammo I've been using for slug rounds; don't get me wrong, the pellets have been serving okay when I've been going up against people with weaker Auras or training robots, but against Grimm or things with more powerful Aura they're just not cutting it. I was thinking some Slug Ammunition in the future, possibly even some APDS rounds for thicker skinned Grimm, would be good."

"I do like that idea if what you're looking for is more punch; pellets would be good if you were firing your shotgun from a relatively longer range but, like Yang, you're firing from a pretty close up distance most of the time. Yang mostly just prefers the pellets because they're cheaper and she doesn't have to worry about changing out ammo on the fly if she comes across someone who might not take a shot from a slug too well." Izuku nodded understandingly; he would imagine that, between Yang's natural strength and ability in close combat and a shotgun blast from a slug, that most normal people, or people with small Auras, would probably be close to dying if they tried to go toe-to-toe with Yang. Beyond that, Tenya just shrugged. "Given that you've built safeties into your gauntlets and the nature of your Smashes, I imagine you wouldn't face the same dilemma as Yang though."

"Speaking of Yang, I was actually thinking of integrating that design choice of Ember Celica to Emerald Gust." Ruby is the one who notably perked up at as Izuku pointed to Emerald Gust's firing and loading mechanism. "Something I'm noticing that was a bit of a hassle for me was that, in the Tunnels, anytime I wanted to change out Ammo for different effects or strategic considerations, I'd 'have' to do it before a fight and then, from there, I'd be stuck with my choice for the rest of it, regardless of whether it's what I needed in the rest of the fight. I'm a melee-focused guy and reloading in the middle of a fight just isn't feasible for me... and when I run out of ammo, that becomes a real problem. So I'd want to be able to reload it quickly and on the fly..."

"So like with how Yang reloads, right?" Ruby immediately jumped in as she scooted Izuku over, producing a screwdriver and a wrench as she immediately went to town on Emerald Gust. Within a matter of minutes, much of the metal casing of Emerald Gust basically fell apart as Ruby undid a few last bolts and screws, showing off the internal shotgun mechanisms of their gauntlets. "Yeah, like I thought, Emerald Gust uses a more typical pump shotgun loader; you're individually loading rounds into it and them cocking them into some kind of chamber for them to be funneled in after each shot. That would take time." Ruby brought over a piece of paper and a pencil and, within moments, sketched out a crude but understandable sketch of Ember Celica. "Yang's belt mechanism makes the entire thing a lot easier; she just feeds the belt of rounds into the slot, the natural cocking mechanism brings it into place for it to be fired out here and, once the belt is spent, it ejects from the other side, ready for a new belt to be fed into place."

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Izuku saw in a bit of awe, Tenya nodding his head in understanding as he watched from behind him. Though this wasn't Tenya's specialty, it was clear that the young man was taking his own mental notes as Ruby went on.

"Yeah, but probably not for your wallet." Izuku blinked as Ruby said this, the silver eyed young woman having tapped on Emerald Gust's mechanisms. "This isn't just some minor modification being made to the extremity, this is an entirely different loading mechanism to what you have in Emerald Gust. That means that you're going to have to tear this right here out and then replace it with something more akin to Yang's design. It's all going to have to fit within the space provided too and it's going to need to be able to work with the firing mechanism here... Ember Celica was built from the ground up with this consideration in mind... though not by Yang," Ruby stuck her tongue out at Izuku as she chuckled, "so don't worry about that, Yang didn't design hers either. So you're in the clear as far as that goes. Anyway, it was designed with this mechanism in mind... here, you might have to see a bit more work done on Emerald Gust to help modify it to fit with this new loading mechanism."

"... So I suppose being able to fit and switch between two belts of different ammo types that I can hop between on the fly would be even trickier?"

Both Ruby and Tenya immediately went pale as he spoke up. Tenya just readjusted his glasses as he didn't even bother speaking up while Ruby just hummed to herself for a moment. The young woman did her best to sketch around on the paper besides her, tapping on Emerald Gust as she does so. After a moment she sighed and pushed the paper away while she goes to work on reassembling Emerald Gust.

"I... really don't know Deku. I mean, yeah, it'd be trickier, but I'm not even exactly sure what you'd do in order to accommodate that. Two belts of ammo, being able to switch them while they're inside the gauntlet and doing so with the space allotted by Emerald Gust's current body? That's a lot of tech you'd be shoving in there... I'm not even sure if it'd fit or if the final result would be balanced for throwing punches at all. I dunno, I'd really have to take some time to think on it but... bleh." Izuku smiled slightly as Ruby reassembled Emerald Gust for him.

"Hey it's no problem. I didn't really expect to get any advice at all so this was way more than I thought I'd have when I came down here. So thanks, I appreciate it." Tenya and Ruby smiled, though Tenya did so while readjusting his glasses.

"Apologies for not being of more help myself; I'm afraid that when it comes to weapons tech that I'm not entirely in my roadhouse." Izuku nodded understandingly as Tenya said this, his hands flying about rapidly while Ruby just grinned.

"Hey it's not problem Deku. This if fun for me! I love weapons and I love picking them apart, checking them out and then thinking of ways to fix or improve them. It's why I love Crescent Rose so much! She's got so many parts and bits that I can fiddle with and improve bit by bit until she's the perfect, most wonderful weapon to ever exist!" Izuku saw Ruby tossed a slightly longing look over to Crescent Rose as she spoke and this caused him to just smile and nod. His friends really were... interesting people, he'd certainly say that much.

"Well Tenya, if arms and armaments aren't your specialty... then given what you know, what would you suggest as an upgrade?" Tenya blinked slightly as Izuku addressed him, having not quite expected the turn in the conversation after how everything with Ruby had gone down. Izuku watched as the wheels turned behind Tenya's eyes, the young man reaching up for his glasses, plucking them off his face, and then cleaning them. The action was clearly meant to busy Tenya's usually energetic hands while he thought and, after a moment and with the lenses freshly cleaned, Tenya placed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and his hands went to work, flailing about.

"Well, while Ruby's suggestions and your questions turned toward a more offensive stance, which I can understand and even applaud as a good offense is a sure way to end a fight before it has a chance to start, I would still caution on keeping your defenses at the ready. Most Grimm in especially dire circumstances will be coming at us in waves upon waves with dozens, if not hundreds, of them in a pack. There's very few quick offenses which would allow you to end such trials quickly, and so you'd have to play the longer game of attrition and, for that, a good defense is necessary." Tenya flailing continues as he pointed over at Emerald Gust. "For right now, as strong as the armor on your gauntlets and boots are, it isn't doing much for you defensively; Grimm are more interested in gutting you and so they're bypassing your gauntlets all-together, and most human foes will be keen to just avoid your armored parts if they're going to go for an attack on your arms."

"Now, don't mistake me for belittling Emerald Gust's work in regards to defense; it's obviously been a big help as far as allowing you to push away or deflect blows from metal weapons that, even with Aura, you might've found tricky to bounce away from you with your bare hands. However, I think there's more to be done there..." Tenya reached over and picked up Emerald Gust's Gauntlet. "Right now Emerald Gust only goes up just past your wrist; it's a gauntlet so that's sensible design for what it's meant for, much like Yang's Ember Celica... however, I think you'd find a few benefits to extending the armor up the rest of your arms." Tenya made a few motions with his hands, going from Emerald Gust to Izuku's own arms for comparison. "Extending the metal up gives you a lot more surface area to block with and allows for more area for the Gauntlet to work with; as Ruby said, right now the thing working against you as far as adding more features to Emerald Gust is space…"

"However, if you gave it more space, there would be more room for components and parts to help things along, allowing for more of the equipment you might be looking for, similar to how I'm able to use my armor to store different equipment or upgrades, such as the engines in the legs and what upgrades I'm looking into for my boots or other bits. Furthermore, if you were to flair out the armor around your forearms, well, you might just be able to deflects blows entirely just by letting them glance off that armor." Izuku nodded, the image in his head clearly forming.

"Yeah but the exchange would be taking direct hits to Emerald Gust, which might damage it eventually especially if you're using them to tank some tough blows." Ruby called out from over her shoulder, the silver eyed young woman having already gotten back to work on Crescent Rose.

"Yes... I have to do repairs to my own armor just for that very reason. Still, you asked for my opinion and I gave it. I hope it was to your satisfaction, Izuku." Izuku smiled at that, nodding his head.

"Of course it was Tenya; you really know your stuff when it comes to this, and I appreciate the advice." Tenya just smiled back, the young man offering a quick snap of his hand as he did so.

"Of course; I'm an Iida, after all. It would be a shame to myself and my family's legacy if I didn't know my stuff when it came to these sorts of questions Izuku. Now, I can't help you in how you might use more space to put in some of what you're imagining... but, well, that would be my general advice as least." Izuku nodded in understanding as Tenya looked back over to his disassembled armor. "Now if you'll excuse me, I should get back to work; I only have so long before Yang decides to... 'bust my chops' as it were over having been gone so long." Izuku chuckled and nodded, letting Tenya get back to work on his armor. Still of the mood to talk to two of his more technically inclined friends, Izuku ended up moving over to Ruby, the silver eyed girl enraptured by Crescent Rose, as he stood back a ways to avoid getting in her way.

"So... you've made Crescent Rose yourself right?" Ruby nodded, a smile on her face as she continued to work on her weapon. "Well... with how much you work on... her, you're bound to have put some really cool stuff into her, right?" Ruby paused her work for a moment, a wide grin on her face as she turned to face him, a proud gleam in her silver eyes.

"'Bound to have put some really cool stuff into her'. Of course Deku, I wouldn't be half the weapon expert I consider myself to be if I didn't." Ruby put her tools to the side as she brought Crescent Rose, admittedly without its scope, up. "Gosh where do I even start... well, I guess first things first, you know what type of weapon Crescent Rose is, an HCSS, but I put my own little twist on that design; you see, most Sniper Scythes usually make the firing mode and the scythe components on very separate ends; you don't want to end up accidentally firing your weapon while your swinging it about, right? You could seriously hurt someone and a Sniper Scythe is already so hard to use that you really shouldn't complicate it too much more..." Ruby gave a quick grin as she nodded her head. "But I did! I ended up making the length of Crescent Rose's shaft her barrel and kept it from getting locked off whenever the Scythe became the main mode used. Ordinarily this would be tricky to do but, well, with my Semblance I can actually make this work pretty well; I can use Crescent Rose to propel myself using its 'massive' recoil and, thanks to the design, I can keep her Scythe head out and use it as a makeshift stand to help keep me grounded whenever I'm firing."

Izuku could imagine why that would be dangerous; after all, if he did something similar with Emerald Gust, how would Izuku keep it from firing at practically all times in a fight. Still, given the way Ruby describes it, he could actually very easily see her point.

"I didn't use it in the spar against Kacchan because... well, it gives a lot of kick and I was kind of being risky enough shooting him directly with the sniper rifle. I didn't want to hurt him by using the recoil to propel one of my swings..." Yeesh, Izuku could imagine. At any rate, Ruby seemed to shake of her own spooky thoughts as she went on. "Let's see, then there's the head!" Izuku watched, with some fascination, as Ruby fiddled around with a few mechanisms on the shaft and, with a pop, Crescent Rose's head somewhat detached from the body of the shaft. To his surprise, Ruby then went on to swivel the head around and rotated it. "Now, usually there's a bit of give in the mechanisms of a Sniper Scythe already; there has to be for the Mechashift to not tear everything apart, right? Furthermore, it's better for complicated equipment like this to have a little give; it isn't solid metal and wood tied together, it'd a series of contraptions working together. If it was just solid and immovable, chances are that with each swing there could be a chance of something giving under the weight…"

"Well, I took that and modified it further, making it possible to swivel Crescent Rose's head around! Originally it was just supposed to be so I could use it while its primarily in sniper mode as that makeshift stand like I said but... well, I've thought of a few other things. Plus, with the additional space I've made in there, I can totally use some other stuff... once I think of it, and I will think of it!" Ruby smiled nice and wide as she practically hugged Crescent Rose to her. "I'll keep working on Crescent Rose until she's the best Sniper Scythe ever made in the history of mankind! That's what my girl deserves!"

...

Ruby blushed a bit as she took note of Izuku and Tenya staring a bit, the young girl laughing nervously as she put Crescent Rose down.

"Hehehe... sorry. Got a little... sorry."

"Worry not Ruby. All of us have our eccentricities. Besides, there are worse things than being impassioned about your craft." Tenya declared with certainty as he turned back to his suit of armor, while Izuku just nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. I mean, Ruby, I've gone off about Hunters and my dream of being one and you all... well, heck, you were downright supportive. Tenya's right; it's not bad that you really care about working on your craft. It's part of your dream and I think it's pretty cool that you know how to make your own weapon and make it better... I certainly didn't make Emerald Gust myself." Izuku scratched the back of his head, Ruby just grinning a bit as she shrugged.

"Well hey, whoever did make it for you, I'm sure they'd be pretty happy you were taking upgrading it and taking care of it so seriously. It might not be your... girl, boy, baby, whatever-" Ruby comically shook her head while Izuku smiled at that, "-but you're doing good by whoever made it, so that's what counts!"

Following that, Izuku stuck around the forge for a bit, talking to Tenya and Ruby idly about their own weapons or armor and about Emerald Gust. It was interesting; as often as he talked or thought about his own dreams and what Izuku needed to do in order to make them a reality, his friends had their own interests and their own means of accomplishing their dreams. Izuku might not have known much about weapons or armor or engineering yourself... but, well, he could certainly say that his life was richer for having two friends who did.

Even if they could be a little intimidating about it from time to time.

During the last moments of the Color Festival...

'Finally!'

'My way too chatty team leader is off with her screaming bitch of a sister and Deku, and that pink psycho grabbed Ren and Todoroki, so I am finally free to do the crap I want without them hovering over my shoulder or asking dumb questions.'

'And just in time too,' he thought to himself as he signed the application sheet not too long before the chance for entrants ended. There wasn't a big turnout to compete, but a lot of people wanted to at least watch with a kind of sick fascination.

"Feh," Like Bakugo cared what the yammering masses thought. It was his chance to finally let loose and indulge himself in a way he never could at school with his team. It wasn't like he was ashamed, but it'd lead to questions or crap like that. Izuku was the only one that knew, as far as he knew, and Izuku was smart enough to keep quiet about it. He made his way up to the stage, getting the cricks out of his neck as he growled as he was forced alongside a short girl with pink and brown hair.

'Jeez, and I thought Todoroki had some fucking weird hair,' he then looked over at the rest of the candidates, 'but it is at least better then next to that flop sweating fat fuck of a guy at the furthest end of the line.'

For some reason, Bakugo found it a challenge to take his eyes off the midget. Maybe it was the hair, or maybe the way something about her pricked at the back of his neck. Whatever it was, he'd respond to it the way he knew best.

"Shouldn't they get you a booster seat, short stack?"

By being an asshole...

Her brown and pink eyes lazily rolled over to him, looked him up and down, then let out a snort before focusing on the announcer in front of them.

'Oh great, so this bitch thinks she is better than me. Oh well,' He picked up his weapon, sat down, and waited as the target was lined up in front of him and every other contestant.

'I'll show her. I'll show everyone why I'm the best at everything!'

"Ready? Seeet...GO!"

'And that includes eating ice cream!'

His roaring battle cry was cut off by the spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream he was shoveling into his mouth, not even needing to waste his semblance as he just chomped like a wild man. Ice cream headaches were for chumps! Attendants were ferrying ice cream as quickly as they could to the contestants, though the fat fuck barely got past few bowls before toppling over like gravity finally decided it had to deal with him. Unlike that waste of everything, the midget was just destroying her own bowls, tiny quick spoonfuls without even stopping for water like some of those poor saps were.

'Don't they know it'd just fill your stomach even more?' Bakugo chuckled. Just meant he was more likely to win compared to these scrubs.

'Except the fucking midget won't stop!'

There were moments even as they ate that her eyes would meet his, almost daring him to keep pace.

'Ha!; He would have laughed out loud at that, but his mouth was full and the best he could manage was a garbled "pbhubhubhu!". It was almost invigorating to have someone keep pushing. 'Considering more and more of our pissant competition was dropping out, she is the only one that was a real challenge.'

It all eventually dissolved into a blur of white, pink, and brown that left his head spinning even as a hand grabbed him and dragged him to his feet. "This years' winner, ladies and gentlemen! Everyone give him a big round of applause!" The cheers were long and loud, helping bring him back to certain immediate facts about reality.

'I'm standing.'

'I'm getting gaudy plastic championship belt handed to me.'

'The crowd is cheering.'

'The midget is pouting.'

'I'm Fucking Awesome.'

It wasn't long before they were all being ushered off the stage and around to the back where he, pinky, and some other schmuck were handed gift cards for an ice cream parlor in Vale. When the attendant handing out the prizes asked if there was any way to improve the contest, there was only one he could logically think of. "Get a flavor better then fuckin' vanilla." From the way the midget was nodding, she seemed to agree with him. Then she looked over to him and quirked an eyebrow.

'What can she not talk or something? Nothing about her I've seen makes her look shy, so she must be a mute midget.'

'Fantastic.'

'Ah well. She is...probably asking a question about my favorite flavor. If not, she can't really say she wasn't, can she?'

"Neapolitan's obviously the best." She actually looked surprised, and some other expression he couldn't get. Probably a single-flavor puritan, or a mint chocolate-chip weirdo like Deku. "When it's done right, you get the best of everything. Could eat that all fuckin' day." Now she was blushing and making actual gestures.

'Sign language? Crap!' He just blinked and tilted his head to the side, about to say he had no clue what she was saying when they were overcast by a massive shadow. Oh great. It's fat bastard and a few guys behind him. Maybe they were helping to carry his lardy ass, but Katsuki couldn't bring himself to care. "There something you want, wide load?"

"You cheated." the man warbled out, beady eyes trying to glare at them in an intimidating way, leaning forward and trying to further intimidate since he was almost as tall as he was wide. Made him more bored than anything, and the yawning girl next him just made the lardy prick glare even more. "You two used your semblances or something. I deserved to win!" With that he saw his three little flunkies flank him. "So you're gonna hand over that belt and those prizes."

Bakugo barked out a laugh, "You're gonna need more than one belt, fatty. And definitely need more friends." He started to roll his right arm, trying to figure out where to start when he noticed something about pinky out of the corner of his eye.

She was coiled like a spring, despite how she tried to look casual. Everything about her screamed 'I'm some kind of Huntress and you are so beneath me it's sad'. Maybe she was a student from another continent, or maybe just older then she looked.

Bakugo could never tell with woman, so he decided to ask something else. "Oi, midget." She frowned at him. Thankfully for her he was feeling generous. "Want the appetizers or the main course?"

Now that seemed to surprise her, and everyone else from the sound of their sputtering, before she pointed to lard ass and shook her head. Since she couldn't talk she decided instead to make a gesture imitating a big belly, letting him guess her meaning.

'The main course is too fatty for her tastes.'

Bakugo could respect that, cracking his knuckles and chuckling as he just walked right up to the wannabe adipose Faunus while she swooped around behind him towards two of the three pissants. For a moment he thought about actually using his semblance, but that'd probably cause more problems than anything. So with only a small flex of aura into his legs, he effortlessly leapt up to get rolly poly in a forward headlock, his normal person strength not even enough to get Bakugo's attention as he gave the head a slow jerk and forced the entire body to turn to face a new direction. Part of it was so he could throw his opponent without hitting anyone else, but it was also to see if the little pink punk needed any help.

One guy was already on the ground, and the other was already in mid mid-air spin with the girls ankles around his neck, all of it a blue of pink, brown, and crying as the guy flipped like a pancake and hit the ground with a thud. The third one had already run off, but damn if that wasn't really impressive.

Not one to be outdone, he leaned back and began to topple his own opponent forward, Katsuki rolling as he hit the ground and giving his prey a shove. The poor rotund man could only cry out in alarm as he rolled like a bowling back and into a wall, which shook from the hit.

'Poor wall. Anyway,' Bakugo casually got to his feet and dusted himself off, looking over at his makeshift partner who was standing smugly on top of the two groaning men. He snorted loudly. "Yeah...well mine's bigger." She rolled her eyes at that, but focused on him when he held his fist out. "But you were still kinda badass."

There was a long moment where she stared at him before she finally smirked and bumped her tiny fist against his.

'Alright. Maybe she is kinda cool.'

When they emerged from the back of the stage, it was some brand new dork in a bowler hat that was waiting for them. "Ahh. Was wondering where you'd run off to Neo." The redhead looked over at Bakugo. "You make a friend?" This time the apparently named Neo nodded and began making some, to Katsuki, incomprehensible gestures he was only just getting the jist of before she finished and the guy nodded. "No kiddin'? Well, I suppose I can introduce the both of us." With that he took off his hat and nodded cordially. It took Bakugo a moment to realize that yes, the guy wore eyeliner, but something about him pricked at his neck like Neo did. Probably some kind of Hunter too. "The name's Roman Torchwick, and my associate here is Miss Neapolitan."

'What?'

"Neopolitan's obviously the best," the statement just rang in his ears for a moment, as Roman and Neapolitan stared and each other, and then shrugged.

He found his jaw working open slightly as he looked to said Neapolitan, who was grinning and made a biting motion at the air. And there went most of his ability to think, managing to at least introduce himself before the weird duo started to walk away. As Neo brushed by, she paused long enough to blow in his ear, causing him to jump and sputter as she simply sauntered away, though not without a certain swing to her hips he couldn't get himself to ignore. When he finally came back to his senses, there were two things he quickly realized:

One, 'That midget bitch stole his belt!'

Two, 'When he saw her again he'd punch her smug fucking face in!'

E/N: Ending us off (and starting something amazing) we have 33 Flavors of Pain by Preventer Squall. Also meet the stories true OTP.

-Shovern.

Hey, we are finally bringing back Bakugou to the story. He kind of fell behind for a bit, but it's good to see him actually start moving forward again.

-Wind-Waker

a/n: Next update'll be on the 5th, as normal