Chapter twelve! Time to start some fun stuff! Every college has clubs and extracurriculars, UA will be no different! Let's go!
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"I'M GOING TO UA!"
Everything went quiet, before the table exploded in excited squeals and cheers. Mustard laughed as Mitsuki and Izuka cried while hugging each other.
Masaru had a few tears rolling down his face. Katsuki was grinning from ear to ear.
As everybody calmed down, Masaru raised his glass of water. "Here's to Izuka's Acceptance! I'm taking us out for dessert after this!"
"Well actually-" Izuka began.
"I bought a load of pastries with her at a shop downtown today. I was sort of preparing for this…" Mustard chuckled. "I still have a full box of cannoli's and tarts."
"Wait, preparing? YOU KNEW?" Izuka blinked.
"They gave me a message on my letter. They assumed we'd talk, since the events in the practical happened…" Mustard scratched the back of his head. "They told me not to tell you, since your results would be a bit delayed. I had a hard time keeping it to myself."
Izuka tackled the young man with a hug. "YOU MEANIE!"
Everyone laughed as Izuka puffed her cheeks out. Mustard blushed at the close contact. "S-should w-we be this close?"
"I'm sorry…" Izuka blushed, scrambling to her feet. "Are you not comfortable with physical contact?"
Mustard shook his head. "Not at all. You just caught me off guard."
Izuka nodded and they joined everyone else for dinner.
"So, Mr. Mustard, does that mean you're going to UA too?"
The boy nodded. "I'm in the hero course. Class 1-B."
"Wonderful! You two are going to be great!" Mitsuki smiled.
"Have you thought of extracurriculars yet? Any clubs catch your eye?"
"He's only known for a week uncle!" Izuka exclaimed.
"And you already talked about what clubs you find interesting. He most likely has something in mind as well." Masaru nodded.
"As a matter of fact, I do have three clubs that are pretty interesting."
"Oh?"
"Yeah! I signed up for one already. I'll be helping with the designs for quirk ball uniforms."
"Oh ho! Quirk ball huh?"
Izuka grinned. "I'm doing the same thing! Since it is one of my areas of expertise."
"Second club?" Mustard quirked an eyebrow at Izuka.
"Quirkless artifacts."
"There's no way… Me too! And what about quirk anatomy and chemistry?"
"SAME!" Izuka grinned. "Oh my god this year will be so fun!"
"Wait, what's quirk ball?" Mina blinked.
"An older sport. It was popular about seventy years ago, but fell apart after more villains began popping up. A lot of hero schools have quirk ball teams now. They use them to teach types of scenarios in a fun way. Six on six soccer matches, with quirks. Suit designers are there to provide a sort of 'Support' roll. I'm mainly in it to fix my own suit design." Izuka nodded.
"Same here. The skills needed in this will help with my own suit designs in the future." Mustard smiled.
"Cool… Maybe I'll try to join the quirk ball team when I go to college." Kirishima nodded.
"With your quirk, you'd be a shoe-in for goalie." Masaru smirked.
"Oh! And Mina and Bakugo could play Strikers!" Mitsuki smiled.
"Which leaves Sero in defense!" Izuka grinned.
"Don't I get a say in this?" Sero sweatdropped.
"It's okay Sero. You'd be perfect for it." Mustard gave a thumbs up. "Now, would somebody be willing to pass the onions?"
Mitsuki smiled and passed the young man the plate. "What wonderful manners. You certainly found a good one Izuka."
Mina choked as she took a sip of water. Mustard and Izuka both turned bright red.
"It's um… It-it's-"
"Auntieeee!" Izuka groaned. "Stop trying to embarrass us!"
"Why? It's working~" Mitsuki smiled.
"You know what? Next week, you're only coming home to melt your mouth curry!"
"You wouldn't!" Mitsuki feigned a look of shock.
"Try me…" Izuka pouted, before taking a bite of her food.
Mustard chuckled as his face went back to normal. "What do you two do?" He asked Mitsuki and Masaru. "Your faces seem familiar…"
"They're big in the fashion industry." Izuka answered. "Just leave it at that or they'll get all fancy on you."
"Fancy?" Mitsuki raised an eyebrow.
"The last time you explained this to one of my friends, you said you were, and I quote, an advanced fabric and design specialist." Izuka rolled her eyes.
Katsuki smirked. "You did say that dad."
"Well, that is what I am."
"You design clothes?" Mustard nodded. "You're a clothing designer. Simple as that."
"Uncle Masaru puts the 'simp' in simple. He loves auntie too much to not show it." Izuka shrugged.
"Well, I don't blame him. If I ever married you I'd do the same."
"So there's marriage on the table hmmmm~"
"Auntieeeeeee!"
Everyone laughed as Izuka and Mustard's full face blushed once again.
The night continued to be filled with laughs and sweet moments. Eventually the group sat together to play a few board games. Finally, the evening wound down, and everybody went to bed.
"Your family is… loud." Mustard stated as Izuka handed him a blanket.
"It's a Bakugo thing." The young woman smiled. "They've always had this… wonderful attitude."
Mustard snickered as Izuka took a few pillows and set herself up on her bedroom floor.
"Wait, no. I can't take your bed!"
Izuka shook her head. "You're the guest, you get the bed! I'll be fine on the floor."
Despite his attempts to change her mind, Izuka eventually convince Mustard to take the bed in order to avoid a further argument.
"Goodnight Mustard."
"Goodnight Izuka. Let's do our best, yeah?"
"Yeah. Plus Ultra."
)=(
Izuka smiled as she beheld her uniform. It was perfect. UA had sent three normal uniforms, along with two winter uniforms. She assumed that UA gym ware would be handed out in classes.
The young woman pulled on the uniform and gathered her things.
'Phone? Check. Chargers? Check. Laptop? Checkity check. Wallet and keys, check check and check! Books are provided because UA is flowing with money. Time to get going!'
"Izuka! Did you get everything?"
"Yep!" Izuka grinned, walking down the stairs to meet Mitsuki and Masaru.
"Your mother would be so proud of you." Masaru smiled.
Izuka gave a smile back. "I know she would. Thank you guys."
"For what dear?"
"For being my family without mom." Izuka nodded as she tried to keep herself from crying. Mitsuki and Masaru wrapped her in a double hug.
"We would do the same thing, no matter the situation. Now, what time do you have to get there?"
Izuka nodded and wiped her face. "I should get going. I love you."
"We love you too honey. Go knock 'em dead!"
Izuka nodded and got into her pickup, before driving to the college campus.
'I'll have to find the quickest route, since I'm commuting…'
The young woman received a parking pass at the UA gate, before parking her vehicle in one of the campus parking spaces.
As she walked in, she could see Mustard talking to a hero, most likely asking for directions.
"Your first class looks to be Trig…" Izuka heard as she walked closer. "That's with Ectoplasm. Just walk into the building and take a left, walk down the hallway and take a right at the end. You should find Ectoplasm's lecture hall there."
Izuka tapped Mustard on the back. "It's also the same lecture hall where they held the written exam."
"You know, that scared the hell out of me." Mustard chuckled.
"I have trig too, come on!"
Izuka grabbed Mustard by the hand and pulled him into the building.
"How do we even have the same classes?"
Izuka smiled. "I'm a special case. I do half of my classes with your group, and half with the A group. I won't normally attend quirk training, so I get three hours in Power Loaders lab!"
"So… what's your official study group placement? I'm in 1-B… but you aren't since our classes aren't completely the same."
"I'm not 1-A either." Izuka smiled. "I am a specialized study. Here we are!"
The two stepped into the lecture hall and selected their seats. Ectoplasm arrived a few minutes afterwards, and began to talk about what they would cover in class.
Izuka rolled her eyes as the professor droned on, and began to take down notes in her quirk theory notebook.
The day went on. Classes were fairly boring until just before lunch. Izuka got to experience her first engineering block.
"If you just walk through here, you'll find- oh! Hello."
Izuka looked up from the workbench she was tinkering on to find Power Loader guiding a group of students.
"Uh… hi." Izuka gave a short wave. "Izuka Midoriya, specialized study. Nezu said I could sit down and work already."
The man nodded. "I completely forgot about that! We'll try to stay out of your way Miss Midoriya."
"Oh no! If I'm in the way of your class, I can shift. What are you teaching right now?"
Power loader gestured behind himself. "This is the new support class. We were getting ready to do a bit of tinkering, so I could get a solid idea of their skill level."
Izuka nodded. "By all means then. Do you mind if I watch?"
"Of course not. Class! This is Miss Izuka Midoriya, a student who specializes in quirk engineering! She'll sit in on class today." Power Loader smiled. "Now, go show me what you can do!"
Izuka sat down in a chair that Power Loader provided, watching as each student ran back and forth for materials.
"So, what are you expecting from this class sir?"
"By the end of this year? High quality quirk enhancing equipment."
Izuka nodded. "I guess I'd expect nothing less."
"I haven't really gotten to speak with you by the way." The hero grinned. "Your area of expertise intrigued me."
"Quirk Engineering?" Izuka smiled. "It is a very interesting science, I don't blame you for being intrigued."
"While it is a field I hoped to study, I have seen that your own approach to it is different from any other that I have seen." Power Loader nodded. "Instead of artificially creating a power, you use already present powers in your inventions."
"It is harder to create something from nothing. That is where my ideas come in quite handy." Izuka nodded.
"So, other than the rifle you made. Are there any other breakthroughs that you've had?"
Izuka pointed at the watch on her arm. "This was my first."
"What does it do?" Power Loader blinked.
Izuka tapped the face of the tool, before reaching out a hand and giving a gentle pulling motion. A notebook from Power Loaders desk floated across the room and into her hand.
"My mothers quirk." Izuka nodded, handing the book to the professor. "It took me a long time to figure it out. Katsuki's quirk is what I've been putting more work into recently. It's taken me three years to put that rifle together."
"Incredible… you figured out a way to activate the quirk factor from your own mother."
Izuka nodded. "I can only use the watch a few times a day. It's more for comfort than anything else."
"If you worked more on it, I'm certain you could improve it."
Izuka nodded and gave a sad smile. "I could, but as it's the only thing I have left of her, I don't want to accidentally destroy what I've made."
Power Loader nodded. "I see. You are quite brilliant. I knew you had a keen mind, but this is beyond what I had prepared for."
Izuka chuckled. "I try. Anyways, what about you? You're one of my favorite heroes by the way."
"I'm flattered." Power Loader chuckled.
"Would you mind if I asked a few questions about your quirk?" Izuka said, procuring a notebook.
"Well sure, what do you want to know? More importantly, what do you already know?"
Izuka smiled. "Well, I know that your quirk is called 'Iron Claws'. It turns your nails into iron claws. At first glance, it isn't a particularly special quirk, but it helps you to burrow through the ground, which is one of your main forms of attack."
Power Loader blinked. "Well, looks like you already know everything…"
"But, do I? And more importantly, do you? How does your body produce the iron claws? Nails aren't bone, but is your skeleton affected by your quirk? I would assume that you have denser bones than the normal individual-"
"Good questions! And yes, my quirk probably does affect my bones. Truth is, I have a bit of a hard time moving around as well as other heroes, which is one of the reasons for my exoskeleton! I never thought about my bone density and weight playing a part in that before, now I have an actual answer!"
Izuka nodded. Before she could ask any more questions, the students began walking up to show their inventions.
"That was fast." Izuka blinked.
"I assume you could do unquirked support engineering relatively quickly as well. It doesn't require as much on hand research." Power Loader nodded. "I'll judge these, you get back to whatever you were working on. Show it to me at the end of this block, okay?"
Izuka nodded and walked back over to her work bench, beginning to once again fiddle with a small device.
The line by the support hero seemed to never end. Izuka didn't mind, as it gave her a bit more time before he inevitably came to look at her work.
With a precise movement of her wrist, a tiny screw was fitted into the brace she had made. Izuka continued to fit the brace to her item, before shifting to her activation method.
Izuka had found that most quirks required some sort of stimuli to activate. For her mothers, it was a dose of estrogen. For someone like katsuki, the stimuli was just heat and a spark. For the quirk she was working with now, the activating agent was a bit more tricky.
Izuka fitted two small black caches she had made for the activation agent and the quirk DNA replicator onto the back of two gloves. With a few additional bits and bobs, she hooked the quirk product valves on the caches into the small series of tubes sewn into the gloves.
Izuka fitted the ends of the gloves with rings of explosion grade plastic. She fiddled around for a bit, adding on detail before Power Loader walked over.
"We're at the end of the block, what do you have so far?"
"Well, I have an idea so far. The problem is that this quirks activation agent is still unknown. So,"
Izuka popped open the back of one of the caches. Inside were a few bits of a pink gel. The area meant for the activating agent was empty.
"The quirk I'm working with allows the user to generate acid from their skin, as well as determine its pH and viscosity. The acid, incidentally, does contain resistant parts of her DNA, which allows me to reuse the quirk multiple times without burning away the quirk factor."
Power Loader nodded. "I see… the small plastic rings on the ends, which would fit around the wrists… those are for adjusting pH and viscosity?"
"Only pH so far," Izuka nodded. "If I can determine the activation factor, then I'll work on viscosity."
Power Loader nodded. "How long do you expect this project to take?"
"Anywhere from a number of days, to months. It isn't ideal, but quirk activation requirements can be pretty tough to determine."
"I understand. Would it be easier if I got my hands on some quirk identification equipment? The same things they use to run tests on kids who's quirks are unknown."
"You can do that?"
"Miss Midoriya, if it would help a student, of course. I have an incredible amount of money from working as a hero, and UA has a very broad budget. Beyond that, I could even write a grant for it. It'll take time for everything to be approved, and for the devices to get here, but it would help, would it not?"
Izuka nodded. "Thank you…"
"Don't mention it. I'm giving you an assignment. I want you to befriend three students in the school and make gadgets with their quirks. I want those three, and these gloves, to be somewhat functional by the end of the term."
"Is that a challenge?" Izuka's eyes sparkled.
"Nobody said that being a specialized student made the professors easier on you. If you can do it, I'll void you from the mid terms. I also hope you take the time to visit combat training with 1-A and 1-B. It might help you with making friends that'll lend their quirks."
Izuka gave a bow. "Thank you Power Loader Sensei. I'll do my best not to let you down!"
"I know, kid." Power Loader chuckled as Izuka packed her things and prepared for lunch.
"I know."
)=(
And there is chapper twelve. The start of UA university!
I hope you all enjoyed. I'm doing my best not to talk as much and spoil things in the notes. If there are any questions, I'll do my best to answer them!
Until next time!
Sushui Out!