Later the day of the incident, Mei and Izuku found themselves drinking hot cups of tea inside Principal Nezu's office, who had graciously allowed them the space to conduct their interview. Nezu himself was sitting behind his large desk, sipping a tea of his own.
They were joined by Izuku's mother, who looked worried sick; and Mei's father, Takumi Hatsume, who had a stern expression and a protective arm around his daughter. A young woman with a scruffy appearance and gentle eyes was also in the room, sitting on a chair next to a small desk, taking notes on a flip pad. The badge clipped to her shirt identified her as Detective Omasuba. She had long hair that kept getting in the way of her mouth, and she had to stop every few seconds to spit out a strand or tuck it behind her ear.
"Thank you for your cooperation, children." Principal Nezu said in a calm voice. "I know this has been a stressful afternoon for you, but we need your help on just one more thing. Detective Omasuba here has been assigned to the investigation on who attacked Mr Aizawa, and she has some questions for you. Please answer them as honestly and clearly as possible."
Omasuba nodded and smiled at them. "Hi there, I'm Detective Omasuba." She said in a friendly tone. "I'm sorry to bother you after such a scary experience, but I need your help to catch the baddies!" Flipping her pad to a new page she looked at them both with curiosity. "Is there anything, ptoo" she spat out another hair, "anything at all unique about the woman's appearance? Extra limbs, mutations, anything like that?"
Mei instinctively looked to her father for comfort, who squeezed her shoulder reassuringly."I'm sorry but we couldn't get a really good view of her face, but she had red hair. But, I think it might have been a wig, I'm not sure."
Izuku nodded in agreement and added, "She also wore plain black clothes, like she was going to the gym or something. It was hard to notice anything that stood out about her." He pondered this for a moment, "Do you think she did that on purpose, so she could blend in and avoid being recognised?"
The detective nodded her head, "Safe bet! You kids must have been super excited though, to see a real life villain fight." She said with a grin. "I mean, I know I would be. It's not every day you get to witness something like that." She leaned forward and lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Did you see any cool quirks in action? Any explosions or lasers?" It was at this point the two parents realised how young the detective assigned to this case was. Inko had watched enough cop shows to know that either meant she was the inexperienced newbie or the wise beyond her years prodigy.
"Detective, could we hurry this along?" Mei's father asked, "My daughter has been through a lot today."
Apologetically, Detective Omasuba carried on with her line of questioning. "You're right, you're right, I shouldn't keep you too long." She said quickly. "I just have a few more questions for you." She bit the back of her pen thoughtfully, then said "Was she carrying anything that stood out to you? Any weapons or gadgets?"
"She had a lot of forks." Izuku answered.
The kindness of Omasuba's eyes seemed to falter momentarily, and she bit the inside of her lower lip, before asking for confirmation. "Forks? Like, a trident?"
"No," Mei interjected. "Forks like the kind you eat with, it was like she had robbed a cafe."
"She had spoons, too." Izuku added.
Omasuba's face fell as she wrote down their answers. Forks and spoons. Great. Awesome. Her first proper case, and it was forks and spoons. This was just her luck. How was she going to explain this one to her boss? She'd worked so hard to get a good assignment, one at UA no less! And now she had to deal with this ridiculous case. She sighed and closed her pad. "Well, I think that's everything we need from you." Omasuba said, smiling weakly. "I'll let you get home, thank you for your cooperation."
The members of the room thanked Omasuba for her time, before Izuku directed a question at Principal Nezu. "Is Mr Aizawa alright?" he asked with concern.
"Oh yes he's quite fine!" Nezu confirmed happily, "He was assigned to a bed in the infirmary, but knowing him he's probably out leaping off buildings and taking down crime lords as we speak, regardless of the concussion. Recovery Girl will be absolutely furious!" he said with a laugh.
The news that Mr Aizawa hadn't been seriously injured was comforting, and it was as if large weights had been taken off the shoulders of the two support students. Hopefully with this adventure behind them, they could get back to what was really important. Building babies.
—
"Alright, Izuku. Time is ticking. We only have one month left to prepare for the sports festival. What's our strategy?!" Mei asked her friend impatiently, slamming her fist down on the metal workbench with a loud clang. They were inside the workshop of Class 1-H and It was a Sunday, so the students were not allowed to operate any of the heavy machinery. However, Power Loader had given them permission to use the space for brainstorming and small-scale crafting. Mei was the type of person who would find a way to sneak in on a weekend anyway, so it was better for the school to know that someone was there in case of an emergency or an accident.
"Simple. I'm going to build awesome support gear, showcase our skills to potential investors, and avoid drawing too much attention to myself!" Izuku replied with a bright smile. "I'm going to make a good impression, not transform into anything weird, and get knocked out in the second round!" He said, raising his thumb up.
"And I'll be building super cute babies, dazzling the investors with my genius, defeating all the competitors, win a medal, and a cheque for 100 million yen, become super famous and have the school renamed after me!" Mei proclaimed.
"That sounds great, but I don't think there's a cash prize…"
"They'll be so impressed that they'll give me the money anyway!"
Arrayed across the surface of the desk were numerous notebooks, their covers bearing the titles "Support Notebook for the Future", followed by numbers ranging from one to sixteen. Each notebook contained a wealth of ideas the two of them had collaborated on since the start of the school year. Today, their goal was to finalise their decisions regarding the gear they were bringing to the sports festival, and to decide whether to improve their existing inventions or build something entirely new altogether.
If they were going to bring items they had already built, Mei had a lot more choice in that regard. But to Izuku's surprise she seemed to be employing a very discerning eye, already having crossed out several items. The wrist mounted grapplers and the electric capture disks, in particular, caught his attention. He couldn't figure out the rationale behind excluding them, but trusted she had a good reason. Either way, she was left with around three dozen options. It seemed, however, that she was leaning toward crafting something entirely new.
Izuku wasn't short on ideas either, but there was one concept that was prominent in his thoughts. Opening notebook number sixteen, he turned to the page titled "Quirk Suppressant Gloves." As he looked over the sketches and specifications, Mei leaned in scanning the page over his shoulder.
"Are you completely sure you wanna do that?" Mei asked, with concern for her friend. "With a quirk like yours, you could easily win this entire thing."
His response was firm and unyielding. "Yeah, I'm sure, I want to make these," he asserted. "All through my life, I essentially grew up without a quirk. Sure, my ID says 'Green Hair', but deep down, I've always felt quirkless. But it never really bothered me, I never felt inferior to anyone else… But now that I have a real quirk, it feels like I'll be expected to conform to some certain image for the sake of others." He locked eyes with Mei, who looked at him with understanding.
Earnestly, Izuku continued. "I know my quirk is strong, maybe even heroic, but… I'm not a hero! I'm just not, I'm an inventor! Being a hero takes so much more than having a strong quirk, there are so many other qualities you need. But building? Engineering? That, I know I'm good at. If I use my quirk at the festival and everyone sees it, I'm going to be that support kid with the powerful quirk, and not the support kid with the great inventions."
Mei, to her credit, listened attentively while the thoughts rattling around in Izuku's mind finally poured forth. There was a brief pause, filled with understanding, before Mei finally broke the silence.
"...You seemed pretty heroic when you cold clocked that assassin lady with a hammer." she reminded him with admiration.
A half-smile tugged at the corners of Izuku's lips. "Heh... Speak for yourself," he replied, "You saved Aizawa's life with a pebble. How did you even do that, anyway?"
"I'll tell you if you tell me how you turned one hand into a hammer and the other into a freaking grappling hook!"
Izuku thought for a moment, retracing the memory, then answered. "Well it was like… I had this feeling in my head that I needed to get over there really fast. Like it was all that was on my mind, I had to be fast. I was going to run over there, but next thing I know, my left hand is made of rope and there's a claw at the end of it!" His voice was filled with a sense of awe and bewilderment, still trying to make sense of it all.
Mei's expression morphed into one of astonishment, her eyes widening with excitement. She couldn't contain her enthusiasm as she shook Izuku by the shoulders, a burst of energy propelling her forward. "A subconscious activation?! Izuku, this is an incredible breakthrough!" she exclaimed, her words tumbling forth in a rush of exhilaration. "Were you even thinking of anything related to grappling hooks?! What if your quirk allows you to manifest items you've never even seen before, solely because they fulfil a specific need or purpose?! The implications of this discovery are absolutely astounding!""
Izuku nodded, his mind racing with the same possibilities that consumed Mei's thoughts. "I've been thinking the same thing," he admitted. "But I believe it might be stress-related... Whenever my quirk, um... evolves, I guess? There's always been a degree of stress or a problem I needed to overcome."
A mischievous grin curved Mei's lips as a playful idea sparked in her mind. "So, all I need to do is stress you out, and your quirk will grow stronger?" she teased.
"Please don't."
A theatrical gasp escaped Mei's lips as she dramatically pressed the back of her hand against her forehead. "It's too late, Izuku!" she exclaimed, pretending to be overwhelmed. "I'm pregnant! And it's yoooours!"
Izuku looked down at his hands, which remained normal and untransformed. "Nah, nothing."
"Poo," Mei pouted.
"Anyway!" Izuku diverted the topic of conversation expertly, "Now it's your turn. What was up with your aim?! That throw you did wasn't just incredible it was… Improbable!"
A grin of pride adorned Mei's face as she basked in the admiration of her friend. "You're not the only one who can uncover new aspects of their quirk!" she exclaimed excitedly.
Izuku's curiosity ignited like a spark, his eyes widening with anticipation. "That was part of Zoom? Mei, that's so cool! So, how does it work? How did you figure it out?" It was difficult to contain the barrage of questions he had.
Mei's enthusiasm overflowed as she began to unravel the mysteries of her quirk. "I actually discovered it not too long ago," she began. "When I zoom in, I realised that there's an overwhelming amount of external information and noise within a 5km radius. To focus on what I truly wanted, I started filtering out all the unnecessary clutter and distractions."
Izuku nodded, his mind absorbing the details. "So, being able to aim for a specific spot is just one aspect of your quirk?"
Mei confirmed his assumption. "Exactly! Like, anyone with normal sight can look at a target and say, 'I'm going to hit that,' and end up missing, but my enhanced focus allows me to better align my aim. It's like my brain has become finely attuned to pinpointed targets! It makes it way easier for me to hit them accurately, especially if they're not too far away." Her smile radiated confidence as she continued, "I've been practising at home. It still requires concentration, but I've gotten really good at it."
A mischievous glint danced in Izuku's eyes as a challenge presented itself. "...How good, exactly?" he asked.
Moments later, the workshop buzzed with anticipation as Izuku stood at one end, holding two partially opened pairs of pliers, one in each hand, extended before him. Mei positioned herself at the opposite end, clutching two coins tightly. "Are you ready?" she shouted across the expanse of the workshop. "Try not to move too much. But don't make it too easy for me!"
"Ready!" Izuku shouted back.
With a swift flick of her wrist, reminiscent of throwing a throwing star, Mei launched the first coin across the workshop with remarkable force. It sailed through the air, exhibiting minimal rotation. At the halfway mark, she released the second coin.
Time seemed to stand still as the two coins arced through the air, hurtling toward their respective targets. In a moment of awe-inspiring precision, the two coins found their mark, landing flawlessly inside the partially opened pliers. The workshop reverberated with the satisfying sound of a resounding "CLINK CLINK." Izuku's mouth formed a perfect "O" shape as he erupted in joyous cheers, and swore loudly.
