My Hero Academia - Under Pressure - Chapter 10 - Under Development

In his room at UA High School, Tonen Keitomo sat at his desk and drew. Much like he did when he had things on his mind.

The picture he was drawing this time was a snapshot of his experience in the Downpour Zone. It featured him clinging to the terrace as the wind nearly send him to the ground. Tonen was finishing up colors on the piece as it had taken him some time to draw it and certain other things in the days since his time in the USJ.

He took his time to ensure that the details in the coloring were perfect. From the shadows on his face, to the depth of the rain and how the stormy nature of the area colored the area with a certain hue, Tonen was nothing if not meticulous in terms of getting it done the right way with his art.

After a while, he put his coloring utensils down and looked at the finished product. He smiled at the dramatic flair it had. Something much different from the more upbeat nature of the pictures of his past, or even his time at the academy so far.

He turned the page to look at another piece he wanted to finish but paused as he looked at it. Tonen's expression soured as he gazed at a sketched out picture of him saving Chuya from harm. The shot was framed from the moment he grabbed her hand and she looked up to see what was going on. Tonen knew the importance of this shot to him, as it was a time his hero instincts kicked in to try and help someone in desperate need.

But as he looked at Chuya's face, and the shock he remembered her having as he grabbed her hand, his memory flashed forward to an annoyed glare that she gave him after they both landed on the ground.

He felt his own anger rise as he heard once more the "logic" behind Chuya wanting to go and do things on her own and not needing anyone's help. It was very much the opposite of his line of thinking. He reveled in being able to work with others. Whether it was Azujima, Ebirima, Kuroda, The Twins, Ueno, or most of the rest of the class. He knew that as eventual Pro-Heroes they needed to learn to work together else fall on their face.

But two people in their class didn't feel that way. Chuya and Goya.

"You ever feel a hate for someone after you get to know them? That's where I was with a certain pair of classmates. One was arrogant beyond belief, and the other was foolish enough to believe they were a one-person army that didn't need help. My personal philosophy with being a hero was built upon the fact that people need us at our best to save them when they're at their worst, or having their worst day ever. Hearing Goya and Chuya talk about their superiority or ability to do everything on their own reminded me of a certain hero who also talked that way and basked in the glory that his fans gave him. That wasn't going to be me, and I knew that no matter what, I couldn't end up like them."

Not wanting to feel that anger anymore, Tonen ripped out the image of him and Chuya from the book, crumpled it up, and threw it away. He gazed at the trash can for a bit before taking a deep breath and heading to his bed to sleep and awake with more pleasant thoughts and feelings in his mind.

The next day came and as Tonen awoke he got himself prepared for school when he stopped and thought about something, "Oh yeah...it's Saturday. I don't have school today. Man time flies..."

With that he shrugged and put on his regular attire to go and be ready for whatever came to him that day.

"I know what you're thinking, 'how can you forget the weekend?' Well, in UA? Time really does fly. Usually your weekends are spent recovering from training or getting some much needed time for homework, or just as much a need to relax. Remember, this is the #1 school in Japan for training future Pro-Heroes, we're pushed really hard here both mentally and physically. So yeah, I forget some things. Sue me."

After breakfast, Tonen returned to the dorm and just did some walking around. It was rare that he got to go and appreciate the area around him which was honestly rather beautiful. It was a wooded area that had paths that would allow you to go and run around unobstructed and unbothered. As he walked a path he saw some other students from other classes and other years go by him.

He greeted them kindly and went on his way, but his expression soured like the night before when a familiar figure ran past him, it was Chuya.

Tonen made eye contact with her but she didn't do the same, she ran right past him and didn't say a word. He tried to put her out of his mind as he went back to appreciating the nice day that was around him.

Eventually, he made his way back to the dorm and went to the common area where some of his fellow Class 1-B students were. Key among them were The Twins, Ebirima, Iha, Sanda, Azujima, and Eri.

They all greeted Tonen in kind and he returned the gesture. But as he went to the kitchen area to get himself something the conversation of the Twins got in his ears.

"I just want to do more, brother," noted Ryo with a ping of concern in her voice.

Ryu patted her on the shoulder in comfort, "We'll think of something, sister."

Curious, Tonen went to join them at their table, "What's up, Twins?"

"Hey TK!" they said happily in perfect unison.

"Do you...just know when you need to start to always be in sync? Or did you practice that?"

They looked at one another, then back at Tonen and shrugged, "It's a gift."

"Ok, ok, I give up on that one. But what were you saying about wanting to do more, Ryo?"

A heavy sigh came from her, "Well, my Quirk is really useful as you've seen, but...I have limits. The USJ test we did proved that as I was put in an area with no tech outside of those mechanisms on the dummies. The other areas wouldn't have been much better. Sure, I'll be cities most times, but I can't always bet on that, especially if teachers like Angel Wings and Armed Guard try and push me outside my limits, but I don't know what to do to change that. It's not like I can change my Quirk!"

She sighed heavily once again, and once more Ryu patted her on the back to support her, "I've been trying to help my sister with ideas but nothing comes to mind."

"Why not just put tech on you?" wondered Tonen aloud.

The Twins snapped to at this, looking to each other and then to Tonen, "Explain."

He turned, "Hey Eri!"

"Yes?" she replied from her spot nearby as she put down a book she was reading.

"Armed Guard said we could go to that development lab or something in order to improve our outfits if we learned we needed something, right?"

"Correct, the Development Studio. That's where we can go to outfit ourselves with new measures for our costumes. Kuroda has already gone there, in fact. That's why she now has those rods that she transforms."

"Oh...so that's where those came from, interesting. I knew you'd remember, thanks."

"Happy to be of service."

"What does this have to do with me, though?" asked Ryo confused.

"You said your problem is you don't have tech to control in certain areas, well, let's take you to the studio and try and get you some."

"Like what?"

Tonen paused as he thought about that, "Well...there's a few options...uh...one sec."

He got up from the table and raced to the staircase. Tonen returned a little while later with a sketchbook of his.

"I keep forgetting you're an artist, TK," Ryu mentioned.

"It's ok, I rarely take my sketch books out of my room as I don't want them damaged. Ok, so where's that blank body page...? Ah, here it is."

He turned to a page where indeed there was an image of a generic human body with no facial features, hair and other distinguishing marks upon it. He showed it to them before drawing on it.

"So, imagine this is you, I'm going off of memory how your outfit looks, I drew it on another page but I don't want to mess with that picture."

Ryo was surprised by this, "Can I see it?"

"Another time, let's focus on this for now."

"Right, sorry."

"No problem. Anyway, your outfit is honestly pretty basic, nothing wrong with that. You have a shirt on you, basic pants, a mecha-style feel to it, it's nice. But, because it's basic, you can put on...additions like...this."

He turned the page around and showed the person outfitted with some armbands and a harness of sorts on the back. To the side were images of drones and other machinery.

"Your problem is that you don't have tech around you in some places, let's change that. We can go to the development studio, have them make you drones and maybe other small tech machines that can operate alongside your Quirk. Giving you range and options, and you can adjust it as you test it out."

Ryo took the sketchbook and looked at it with awe, "That's a great idea! I never would've thought of that. Do you think they can really make this work?"

"No harm in asking. Eri, is the studio open today?"

Eri paused slightly and her eyes fidgeted as she searched her memory, "Yes, they're only closed on Sundays. They're open until five today."

"Awesome, shall we go now?"

"YES!" The Twins exclaimed loudly, almost knocking Tonen out of his chair.

"Ok, ok, calm down, and let's go. We'll be back!"

"Later!" the others said as they left.

The three of them left and headed for the development studio. It was located in the main building of UA and when they found it they were surprised by the large metal doors to it.

"Well that seems excessive," Tonen said as he gazed upon the doors. He motioned to the Twins who merely shrugged in reply as they didn't know what was going on either. "Right, ok, let's see how this goes."

He knocked on the metal doors, a large reverberating sound emerged as he did. The door slid open and a man emerged, "Yes, yes, who's there, who's there?"

The three looked upon the man and saw a guy with a strange set of goggles that had lenses that rotated in and out of the headset frequently. He was wearing an apron akin to one a welder wears to prevent burns and he had heavy-duty gloves on as well.

"Yaka Daisaburo. Support Hero. Also known as The Tinker. Quirk: Mechanical Forging. If you can give him a sound enough idea and blueprints he can even make just about anything so long as he has the right materials. Nothing sci-fi per se, but he can surprise you by helping you get what you need mechanically or otherwise."

Tonen wasn't sure what to make of him so he treaded lightly, "Yeah, hi. I'm Tonen, these are the Twins, we're-"

"Students? Yeah, I got that," interjected The Tinker with clear impatience. "Do you need something? Or are you just here to gawk? If it's the latter, leave, I'm a busy man."

"No...we need something, my friend here needs to ask about potential modifications to her hero costume, mechanical modifications-"

"Ah! You need me to build something! Good, I was bored, come on in!"

He turned around and entered without another word to them. Tonen was quite put off by this and again turned to the twins, whom just like before shrugged as they had no idea what was going on. With a hiss of annoyance Tonen followed The Thinker inside, the Twins followed right behind him.

"Woah," said Tonen as he entered the room and saw it in full.

"Sister, this place is incredible," added Ryu amazed.

"Brother, I'm in heaven," Ryo said awestruck.

The development studio was full of items and tools and machines and gear with plenty of tables to build things on. The Twins couldn't help but have a starry-eyed look on their faces as they saw it all.

The Thinker noticed this and his goggles shifted once again to let his true eyes shine through, "Uh...are they ok?"

Tonen let out a soft laugh, "They're...mechanically inclined in their own way, so this speaks to them, especially to her."

"Oh, fellow tech enthusiasts! I approve! Now, get over here and tell me what you want, need, desire, and I'll let you know if I can help. Snap to it!"

Tonen motioned the Twins to follow him and he presented his sketch to The Tinker, who quickly examined it.

"She needs to add some machines to her costume to help her in areas where tech isn't around. Do you have anything that might fit that mold?"

"On hand? Of course! I've been working on various compact drones that could definitely fit in some armbands. Let me get them out."

He rushed from one drawer to the next and grabbed various things, once done he returned to them and presented several compact cubes and spheres.

"The drones are in them?" asked the Twins.

"No, children, the drones ARE them," corrected The Tinker and he pushed a button on a control device.

The cubes and sphere slowly unfolded and transformed into fully-operational drones. They hovered in the air for a bit but slowly short-circuited and crashed to the table once more. The Tinker groaned at this.

"Not again."

"What's wrong with them?" asked Ryu.

"Well I can make just about anything per se, but that doesn't mean that what I make will work. The parts are there, but there's something in the details I'm missing."

Ryo came over to the drones and Tonen noticed her arms glowing via her lines, "There's something wrong with the power converter."

Upon hearing the statement The Tinker scoffed heavily, "Little girl, you can't see the power converter from there."

"I know, but the drone is telling me it's the power converter."

"Excuse me?"

"Her Quirk is allows her to talk to and control machines," stated Tonen, "trust me, it's the real deal."

"Ok then, interesting, curious, let's test it! What does the drone say is exactly the problem?"

Ryo held her hands to over the drones and heard them via their electronic signal, "The...ratio to distribute the power equally without overloading is off by 25 percent. That's why they can take off but not stay there."

The Tinker palmed his face in frustration, "Of course! It's always something. Ok, let me get a tool and I can fix that right away!"

He darted to another part of his lab, one where a giant suit of mech armor stood. Beside that was a large pile of gizmos and gadgets just stacked upon one another. As The Tinker rummaged through it, some of the items hit the armor, causing it to wobble. Tonen noticed the wobble grew and eventually tilted towards him.

"Look out!" he cried.

The Tinker barely noticed it and got away just as the armor collided with the items.

"No! Drat! Curses! WHY!?" exclaimed The Thinker rapid fire. "Now I have to wait for a strength Quirk student to pass by and-"

"I got this," Ryu interrupted as he pounded his fists together, and his robot form emerged. With minimal effort he went to the mech suit and lifted it upright.

The Tinker was impressed by this and recalled something Tonen said previously, "Mechanically inclined...you undersold it, dear sir!"

"The Twins are special," Tonen said with a playful shrug.

Not wanting to waste a moment, The Tinker grabbed a tool he needed, raced to the drones and fixed them. Once he was done he motioned to Ryo to do her thing.

She spoke to the machines and nodded after a sec, "They say they'll work now."

"Wonderful! Won-der-ful!"

He grabbed the device to control the drones and started them up again. This time they went and flew upward and stayed there. The Thinker flew them around the room with incredible precision before he landed them back on the table.

"Ah, relief, joy, glory! So, you two want to work here?"

The Twins were not expecting that, "Huh?"

"Look around! I get a lot of orders from you children, I need the help ever since I lost my protégé in the last graduating class. You, young lady, can talk to machines, that'll greatly help me expedite work, and you young man can be the muscle I need for bigger jobs. Plus, an extra set of hands wouldn't hurt."

"Can we even do that, brother?" wondered Ryo.

"We're in the hero course, would we even have time, sister?" questioned Ryu.

"I'll clear it with your teachers, and I'll make sure you're not overworked here. In return, if you join me, I'll make sure that you and any of your friends' upgrades are put into the front of the line barring a teacher request. Deal?" purposed The Tinker with an extension of his hands.

The Twins looked at one another, then each grabbed a hand, "Deal!"

"Fun! Excitement! Partners! Wonderful, now, let's get this started by finishing your costume request, young lady."

Tonen cleared his throat and got their attention, "So...you two seem to be well off, I'm going to head back to the dorm area. Don't have too much fun, ok?"

"Thank you TK! You're the best!" praised The Twins in unison.

"Yeah, yeah, just bring back my sketchbook when you're done. I'll let the others know what's going on."

They said goodbye and Tonen left with a smile on his face, knowing that he had done more good than even he intended to do.

As he headed back to the dorm, he decided to do another walk down the nature path, when he did, he felt a rumble that seemed familiar. He paused and waited for it to come again, and sure enough, it reverberated through the nearby area, even stronger than before. After it stopped, Tonen picked up his pace and looked around for the source.

To his surprise, he found a small clearing area in the woods, and in there was Sanda. He was practicing his earth moving in various ways. From riding around on dirt mounds, to lifting up and shooting rock projectiles, and more.

Tonen watched him for a while. Though they had only interacted a few times, he liked and appreciated Sanda. He was a bit of a rambler, but he had heart, style, a certain humbleness, and based on a comment from the USJ rescue training, he wasn't a fan of Goya. Instant points in the mind of Tonen.

Sanda took a small break after his practice and sat down on the ground, when he did, he noticed Tonen, "Hey man! How long have you been there? Obviously if I had known you were there sooner I would've responded but I get a bit of tunnel vision when I work so I could've-"

"Quake!" interrupted Tonen to get him to stop, "I just got here, relax."

"Right, sorry, gotta work on that."

"It's fine, we all have our oddities. You should see the guy in the development stuiod. So, what are you doing? Just training?"

"Yeah. As you might recall, I need to actually be touching earth in some way to manipulate it at all. The training classes are great, but I don't always get to do the more down and dirty training like I want. I found this clearing not long after the USJ session so I have been finding time to come here and work out. So to speak."

"Clever, I like it."

"What about you, Tonen? What were you doing?"

"Me? Oh, I just helped The Twins with something," he recalled to Sanda, "thought I'd enjoy the day with a walk. Felt your quakes and wanted to check it out."

Sanda was surprised by this, "You felt my quakes? Curious, I must have been going stronger than I thought. I'll have to work on that too."

"As long as you don't open fissures up in the ground I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Fair enough. By they way...don't think I haven't noticed you helping out a lot of people in our class, Tonen. You've helped Azujima, Iha, Ebirima, Ueno, and now The Twins? You're a nice dude."

Tonen bowed at the compliment, "Always nice to be appreciated."

"I mean it. We need someone like that in our class, even if SOME of the others don't want to admit it. Just let us know if we can help you, ok?"

"Sure thing, right now I-"

He paused and his mind flashed back to the time when he fought Sanda in the team battle and got hurt. Armed Guard told him he needed to work on his defenses and he had been struggling to do so ever since.

"Actually, maybe you can..."

"Really? Sweet! I mean, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to help you but I'll sure try especially you asked and-"

"QUAKE!"

"Right! Sorry!"

Tonen did his best to restrain the laugh building inside of him, "Remember when we did that 1-on-1 fight during the team battle? You used your earth as a kind of shield. I tried to do the same with my air pressure but it...didn't work out."

Sanda sought that memory and remembered the damage he did to Tonen, "Oh yeah, you were bleeding after that strike, sorry about that."

"No worries. I've been trying to work on a special technique, an 'air wall' if you will. Since earth is kind of the opposite of air, will you help me try and figure it out? Maybe another elemental can think of something I can't."

"Yeah, sure man, let's try it!"

Tonen gave a thumbs up and entered the clearing more, Sanda moved the earth around so that it was flat like it was when he entered. Content with its look he gave his own thumbs up to Tonen and stood a good difference away from him.

"So...how do you want to do this?" wondered Sanda as he tried to think of what to do attack-wise.

"I need to try and figure out how to shoot out my air in a way that'll disrupt momentum of a projectile, like your rocks you fire off sometimes. So get some of those ready, fire them at me, and I'll try and create a wall of air to stop them in place," answered Tonen.

"Yeah, I can try and do that. Oh, uh...where should I try and hit you?"

"Uh...aim for my chest area."

"You sure...this is gonna hurt if it hits."

"What better way to train than to know you'll get hurt if you fail?"

Sanda let out a nervous groan but didn't object. He tapped the ground with his hand and some cracks formed in it. He raised up a set of rocky projectiles and pointed them at Tonen.

Tonen took a moment to focus, letting deep breaths in and out so that nothing was in his mind outside of the task at hand. Once centered, he looked at Sanda and gave a slight nod to show he was ready.

His training partner nodded back and aimed one of the projectiles at Tonen's chest. He fired it and the moment Tonen saw it moving he exhaled and shot gusts of air upward from his body. When the project hit the air gust it didn't even flinch and blasted Tonen in the chest, sending him to the ground in pain.

"Ok, that sucked," admitted Tonen as he clutched his chest.

"Dude, you ok?"

"I'm fine, stay there, give me a minute..."

Sanda reluctantly stayed and soon enough Tonen rose up to his feet and again did some deep breaths in order to center himself.

"Ok let's try that again, but this time...aim for my shoulder."

"That is a good idea," noted Sanda relieved. "Less likely to seriously injure you there."

"Right, oh and I'm going to try something different this time. I'm going to send my air blast outward toward you to see if I can stop the projectile that way."

"Curious...but ok."

Sanda brought forth his next projectile and aimed it at Tonen's left shoulder. He launched it and this time Tonen shouted, "KAH!"

This time a mighty torrent of air shot forth and hit the projectile. But the best it did was drift a little bit downward and hit Tonen in the lower part of his shoulder. He went down on one knee as the pain kicked in.

Tonen groaned in frustration, "Yeah, that still sucked."

"That was something though, right?" posed Sanda. "I mean sure you didn't really move it but you did in a certain way and if you could get it to move even more you could get it to miss you entirely and-"

"Quake!"

"Sorry!"

Tonen got back up and rubbed his shoulder, "You're not wrong in the deflection part, but that's not what I want. If I deflect an object away...then all of a sudden it's heading towards something I can't see. It could be a building, or a person if I'm not lucky. That's why I'm trying to do this air wall thing. I want to stop these projectiles dead in their tracks."

"Oh...that way they'll just drop and not hurt anyone."

"Right. Ok, let's keep trying. I'll figure this out eventually...or I'm going to need some serious medical attention."

"Let's hope it's the former..." hoped Sanda with another nervous groan.

For the next several minutes, Sanda and Tonen did their training. Sanda fired multiple projectiles at Tonen, and Tonen did multiple variations of his air wall technique to try and get the result he wanted. But no matter what he tried, whether it be upward or downward blasts or more intense blasts, he couldn't get the desired effect. Each time he failed his body got more and more bruised and sore.

After yet another failed attempt he sat down to take a break, "Yeah, I'm going to need a minute."

Sanda wasn't amused by the statement, "Dude, if we keep going like this I'm going to have to carry you to Life Force so she can heal you."

"Hopefully that won't be necessary."

"I don't mind helping you man, but you can't take much more of this."

"You're right, you're right. I just don't know how to make this work. With my offensive attacks or even making myself speed up or fly it's not that hard, it's just the right amount of force. But I'm trying to stop momentum with a counter-force and it's just not working. Not sure how to do an air wall with what my Quirk will allow."

"Why not make an actual wall?" came a voice.

The two turned and to their surprise Iha, Ebirima and Azujima were there.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?"

Ebirima pointed down to Azujima, "Azujima heard you in pain and wanted to know what was going on. To his senses it looked like Sanda was using you for target practice."

Sanda was offended by this, "Oh come on! I'm not a bad guy!"

"My senses weren't picking up Tonen's wind techniques, so from far away all I heard was him in pain at all the hits you were getting on him," cleared up Azujima. "Once we got here it was much more clear what you two were doing. Sorry to jump the gun."

"Yeah ok...just don't do that again, I have feelings you know."

"Fair enough."

"So...trying to get a new technique going, Tonen?" asked Ebirima curious.

"Trying being the keyword here, Bubble Gum. Oh, Up Down, what did you say about making a wall?"

"Why not make an actual wall of air?" she repeated, blank expression in full effect.

"Can you be more specific?"

"Air has weight, but not a lot. That's why we barely feel it on us. Wind is strong, but we can resist it with momentum. Like Sanda's projectiles with your air blasts. If you make the air thick enough though..."

"It can't break through!" finished Ebirima seeing where Iha was going. "We know air can get denser in a smaller area because of things like humidity. So go beyond that! Make the air around you so dense that nothing can penetrate it."

"What she said," Iha added with a point to Ebirima.

"Love the thought, ladies," admitted Tonen but a wag of his finger got their attention, "but, that would require stopping the air. I've never tried that before. I don't even know if I can do that. I've only ever shot air AWAY from my body."

"So try now," called out Azujima in a very Iha-style response which got her to smile as she recognized it.

"That simple?"

"That simple! You've been helping us think beyond what we can do. Just look at what you did with The Twins on that costume thing. So you've never tried it before, that's fine. Try now. If it doesn't work? You'll know that this isn't an option anymore. No harm in trying, right?"

Azujima gave Tonen a very confident look, which made Tonen very proud as Azujima wouldn't have done that when they first met. He got up and gave a nod, "Right. Ok, Sanda, give me a sec to try this before firing things at me."

"Take your time, dude, no rush!" Sanda replied with a motion to take all the time Tonen needed.

Tonen got into position and thought about what he wanted to try and do with the air. He had to lock the air in place, or at the very least shape it in a way that didn't get it to move. He did some small tests using his hands at first.

He put them a small distance apart from one another and exhaled to send air from one hand to the next. Each time trying to stop the air from reaching the other hand, or at the very least only grazing it. The first few attempts didn't really do much, but on one Tonen felt things change. He could feel the air building up instead of just bursting out.

Tonen repeated that attempt a few times to get the feeling memorized then turned and motioned to Sanda to launch a projectile at him. Sanda raised up a new chunk of earth and fired it at Tonen.

Right on cue, Tonen exhaled heavily and sent a burst of air out of him, but tried to limit how far ahead it went. The earth projectile hit the air wall, and to the amazement of all, they saw it physically slow down as it hit Tonen in the chest.

The amount of force the projectile did on him was minimal. It barely hit at all before dropping to the ground.

"Woah," said Iha at the result.

"That's a word for it," admitted Azujima equally impressed.

Ebirima was thrilled at the attempts success, "You definitely slowed it down! Did it hurt when it hit?"

Tonen wiped some dirt specs off his chest, "Barely even a scratch. But that's not good enough..."

"Why not?" asked Sanda, confused by Tonen's meaning, "You didn't take damage that time!"

"Yeah, with YOUR projectile. There are going to be things like bullets that go faster than your earth bits. That's why I need to stop the projectiles dead right on contact else..."

"You risk them coming at you with enough speed to hurt?"

"Yeah, and that would suck more than your earth hitting me."

"Fair enough. Want to try again?"

He nodded at the suggestion, "Yeah, I'm going to put more air in the wall this time. So send your shot with as much force as you can, ok?"

"You got it, dude," acknowledged Sanda with a thumbs up.

Tonen got back into position, and gave the signal he was ready. Sanda brought out a slightly bigger projectile and put a lot of motion into launching it at Tonen.

"Kah!"

Air flew out of Tonen and again formed the wall in front of him. This time though, the projectile hit the wall and shook for about an inch or so before dropping to the ground.

They all looked at the projectile for a bit before they turned to one another and smiled, Tonen had the biggest smile though.

"I think we have a winner, everyone."

"Nice job TK!" praised Azujima.

"That'll be very helpful in battle, especially against people who launch things, just don't use that against me, ok? That would really gum up my works!" joked Ebirima.

Sanda snickered, "Good one! Seriously Tonen, nice job."

Tonen again wagged his finger at them, "No, I should be thanking you guys. You all helped in your own way. Quake for the projectiles, Up Down for the idea, and Azu alongside Bubble Gum for the encouragement. Means a lot."

"What are friends for?" asked Ebirima with a smile.

"What she said," Iha stated with a familiar point.

"You've helped us plenty, our turn to repay the favor," added Azujima.

"Well if that's the case, Azu, do help me to the nurses office," Tonen said with a hurt-filled laugh as he tried to massage his shoulder and chest. "I got bruises all over and I don't want to heal naturally on this one."

"No problem, TK."

Tonen went over to his friend to leave but Ebirima motioned for him to stop, "Don't leave now! I wanted to have Sanda help me with my own new technique! I want to make a bubble gum web!"

"Sounds...sticky," Sanda revealed after a moment's thought.

After a laugh, Tonen put a hand on Ebirima's shoulder, "Have at it, and show me later. Besides, you have someone to bounce ideas off of if you need them, right Up Down?"

"Yep," she answered with a smile to the two.

"Besides, you're not doing this as the first of something, so you won't jinx it! Off we go Azu!"

With a wave to the others the two departed. Ebirima shook her head as she knew she got bested verbally but didn't retort. She went to Sanda and talked about her plan for the web. Iha silent watched and waited to be needed or asked something.

As Azujima and Tonen walked back to the main dorm, Azujima couldn't help but look at Tonen, who noticed this multiple times, "What is it, Azu? If you're worried about my condition, I'm fine."

"No, it's not that," Azujima admitted with a gesture of the hand, "I'm just...a little jealous of you and Ebirima."

"How so?"

"Well, you two can work your powers to do something new and special. Making walls and webs, and I've seen you do other special things with your air waves. I can't do that with my Quirk."

"Azu... Every Quirk has the ability to evolve in a certain way. My parents were the one to tell me that. My dad's Quirk isn't physical, it's a mental one. But he refined it to a level where he's one of the best fixers around. For you...well...if your senses help you gain insight into something, you can work on how you read it. Or, you can work on how fast you react to it. If you can react as fast as the information comes in, that'll help you greatly in the field."

"Huh...I never thought of it that way."

"See? And I didn't think of my air wall like I should've until you guys helped out. We're all under development Azu, it'll take time to get us to where we need to be."

Azujima grew sad at this, "I'd just settle for getting help not having to focus all the time in order to dull my senses. It's tiring."

Tonen looked at his friend and felt great sympathy for him. True, his own Quirk could hurt his body if not careful, but he had an easy release from that pain, Azujima didn't.

As he thought that, an idea came over Tonen, "Come with me, Azu!"

He bolted ahead, which stunned Azujima for a bit but he quickly made to follow, "Aren't we going to the nurse's office?"

"Later! I have an idea on how to help you, come on!"

Azujima did his best to keep up, and eventually the two ended up in front of the Development Studio. Once he saw Azujima caught up to him, Tonen knocked on the door.

After a few seconds it opened up and The Tinker was once again before him, his spectacles shifting to get a clearer view of who was there, "Who? What? What do you want? Oh, you...I remember...for some reason..."

"Some reason?" balked Tonen, "I was just here with The Twins an hour ago!"

"Oh! Of course! You helped bring me my new assistants. Welcome back! Who is he?"

The Tinker pointed to Azujima, who looked very nervous at the situation unfolding before him, Tonen smirked at the question, "Is your offer for The Twin's still on the table? About their friends getting stuff made first?"

"Yes..."

"Good! He's your first job then. Azujima has super senses as a Quirk. He has to constantly focuses to keep them in check else it overloads him. Can you help with that?"

The Thinker thought it over and then snapped his fingers, "Oh! Wait! You're the kid who needed that special helmet for their hero costume, right?"

"Yeah...that's me..." Azujima answered somewhat weakly.

"I was hoping to meet you at some point, come on in!"

He waved them into the room and Tonen was surprised by how much had shifted around since he had been there. The Twins were in a flurry of motion as they bounced from one table to another working on various things.

At one point they stopped and noticed Tonen and Azujima, "Hey TK! Azujima! Welcome to our lab!"

"MY lab!" corrected The Tinker. "I mean studio! Not a lab, that has chemicals. Which I only have in short supply. Now, you, Azujima is it? Come here."

He pointed to a nearby stool and Azujima hesitantly sat on it. The Tinker brought out a gadget and held it right in front of Azujima's face then slowly moved it around his head. The device gave a readout as to what it was sensing and this made the builder's eyes go wide.

"You seem to have a habit of underselling things, dear sir," he noted with a look to Tonen.

"How so?" asked Tonen.

"Your friends senses aren't just super, they're super-charged! The nerves and cells within him are processing information all around us at a level I've never even felt was possible. Ever! Ever ever even!"

"So that's why I'm in pain," lamented Azujima to The Tinker, a sad expression on his face. "I have to keep everything in check all the time else I'll hear, see, smell, taste and feel everything. It's...it's..."

"A lot," finished The Tinker, his expression now calm and understanding. "I understand that in my own way. My mind is constantly flowing with notions and ideas and blueprints and when it happens late at night and my body wants me to build something...it takes a lot to overcome. But, I did it, and so can you. I was the one who helped built your helmet, so I can help you hear as well."

"You mean it?"

"Yes! Of course! In fact, I have something around here that can prove it..."

He rummaged around some of the nearby tables and eventually pulled out a curious set of earbuds.

"Put these in."

Azujima took then and looked to Tonen, who nodded in acknowledgment that he should try them. When he put them in his ears, the sounds of the room mostly faded away.

"Can you still hear me, Azujima?"

"Yes, but not much else in the area. This is great! How did you...?"

"Same technique for your helmet, just on a different scale. You can adjust the sound catching via an app I'll put on your phone. As for your eyes and other senses, I'll need you to stay here a bit longer so I can take it all into account, you ok with that?"

"Yes! I mean, yes sir," replied Azujima trying to contain his excitement.

The Tinker smiled at him, "Good, it may take a while but we'll get you fixed up."

"Speaking of which," interjected Tonen, "I need to get to the nurses station, so I'll leave you here Azujima and just head back to the dorm when you are released, ok?"

Azujima nodded, "Thanks TK, again."

"Like Bubble Gum said, 'What are friends for?'"

Tonen gave a thumbs up to Azujima, and waved bye to The Twins before he departed. As he headed to the nurses office he smiled knowing that he helped out his friends, and hoped for nothing more than to do it as much as possible for as long as they needed him.

*credits*