Hey there people! How's about another entry? Let's get to it, lickety-split!
If Ranko could take time to organize a list of places she'd least like to visit, a police station would rank in the top five. Her uncle may be an ass she'd rather see in a casket than ever meet again, but she had spent an unfortunate number of years in that shit lord's company. It was only natural that his distaste for The Law would extend to her eventually.
Didn't help that, by association to that sorry excuse for a human being, most cops she dealt with saw her as little more than street trash. They'd certainly taken their sweet time "coming to her rescue."
Fucking pigs.
Jamie walked in like he owned the place, steps clacking evenly as he strode across the glossy floor of the lobby. A golden image of a police badge was painted over a blue circle in the middle of the floor. A ribbon was drawn across the badge, displaying the precinct's number and year of establishment.
Ranko bit back the urge to spit on the emblem in passing, turning her steps into stomps as a compromise. Daichi rolled his eyes at the display, but if any of the station regulars took issue with the dog girl's actions, they sure as shit weren't showing it.
The blonde teen was far from an expert on the daily activities of a police precinct, but what he was seeing looked excessive. The main desk was polished wood, wide enough to span the width of the lobby with only two gaps at either end for personnel to pass through. A secondary barrier of grid like wooden frame and glass panels separated the counter and front entrance from the main space, the wall reaching two stories up to the ceiling.
The place was a fucking mess. That moderately ornate front counter which should have been the meeting point between the public and the police was a catastrophe of paperwork. About half a dozen "stationed" individuals were going over files, notebooks, and binders with almost inhuman zeal. The bags under their eyes and their universally slack jawed expressions said they were largely running on autopilot.
Every couple of seconds, a runner of sorts would invade the workspace. They only ever stopped long enough to slam another stack/tote of sheets before one of the desk zombies or to haphazardly scoop up "sorted" papers and then make a swift b-line somewhere else. The majority of those carrying stacks away from the front desk would disappear down a side hall where the near continuous grinding of several paper shredders rang out.
Bit of an odd image, all that.
Jamie halted at the counter's edge, literally pressing his chest against the oaken frame. His windowed gaze drifted over the various persons behind the front desk, snapping onto whichever shuffling drone happened to wander closer. Jamie didn't even get so much as a passing glance, the busy desk attendants happily ignoring his existence.
Daichi stood back towards the center of the lobby, out of arm's reach of he red head but at a good angle to observe. His sight swerved over to Ranko for a moment, just to make sure she was still with them.
And yeah, physically, she was still present. Very present if the way her ears and nose twitched were any indication. Not to mention how her intense glare flew across the room at the slightest hint of motion, her furry frame tensing at damn near every source of stimulus.
Basically the picture image of "high strung." She'd get over it.
Something new caught Jamie's attention. The boy stared down at something poking out from the scattered notes and documents for a silent minute. Then he reached forward, plucking the palm sized object off the desk top. Daichi's brow quirked at the gleaming, golden body of a call bell.
The weird thing about it was the button mounted on top of it. Rather than a little flat nub, instead a stylized pair of glossy, rose colored lips hovered just over the polished curve of the bell. Jamie set the thing down right in front of himself and just watched it for a little while. The inanimate object provided little entertainment.
No one stopped the teen as he wound his arm up and over in an exaggerated arc. The station employees were still pointedly ignoring the highschoolers, Ranko was still waiting for a reason to bolt/throw down, and Daichi would never think to interrupt a show in progress. Taro remained strangely frozen on the bottom of his ball.
Jamie tapped the lips and slowly pressed down.
"AAAAA~aaaahhhhh-aaaaaawwwwnnnnnn~"
Daichi's jaw dropped in slow motion as the orgasmic moan filled the space. Jamie hadn't flinched at all, his digit pushing down on the false lips at the same, painfully languid pace. And for seven, agonizing seconds, that throaty cry of pleasure flooded the lobby.
It actually took the workers more than an instance to register what was going on. The slow turn of numerous heads, practically in unison, towards the bespectacled teen, one man dropping a tote of files he was hauling away, was truly a thing of beauty. Daichi could feel a smile fighting through his slack jawed expression.
A silent pause followed, the front room frozen in time as the personnel in the station proper beyond the glass barrier kept up their hustle. Jamie swept his even gaze over each of the desk attendants, holding for a moment before drifting to the next one.
Then the boy de-pressed the button.
Whoever designed that little trinket had some sense of humor. As Jamie let pressure off the device, at that same sluggish speed, the air filled with a drawn out, high pitched gasp. This lasted for another seven, deliberate seconds.
A dainty set of fingers rushed in from the side, swiping the erotic bell away from the red head. The joke item gave one final, needy huff as it was wrenched back. Jamie blinked at the spot previously occupied by the golden chime before curious eyes rose to regard the thief.
Pink irises stared into the young man's light greens with a heavy air of annoyance. The woman was about even with Jamie in height, her blonde hair cut short and her fairy wings fully extended to the sides. She maintained her glare for a time, long enough to realize it really didn't affect Jamie.
The pixie woman threw out a tight grin, her eyes still conveying a fair degree of heat. "Hello," she intoned with downright saccharine levels of sweetness. With a deft flick she tossed the pilfered bell behind her, a sharp tink and a cry of pain sounding out as she nailed one of her coworkers in the head.
From the way her grin became more genuine, the shot had been intentional. Guess that solved who brought the joke trinket in the first place.
She started up again, "Good day to you, citizens. How may we be of service?"
Jamie hummed in thought as he was making to reply, his response halted when the pink eyed lady turned her gaze to his right. Ranko was practically perched on the teen's shoulder, the girl having darted over as soon as she saw the police fairy reach towards her classmate. Her posture had gone beyond tense into moderately hostile territory, the edge of the counter and Jamie's bulk doing a good job of concealing her half raised arms and balled fists.
Daichi had one palm on the back of Ranko's neck, his other clutching Taro's ball to his belly. He was stood on Jamie's left side, reaching across the American's back to seize his friend. The dog girl didn't even glance at him, her keyed up sights locked on the blonde attendant with the occasional twitch towards some of the other employees. Daichi tightened his grip on her, another three seconds passing before she allowed her limbs to lower.
The blonde teen drew back his arm, slapping Jamie in the gut with Taro's orb as he passed off the hamster. Daichi stepped in as the bespectacled boy scooched back, his own "service smile" meeting the lady fairy's. "Well we're just a couple of upstanding young samaritans looking to aid our local officers."
Quirking a brow, the station worker returned, "Shouldn't you be in school?" There was little concern in her words, the statement meant to get the lot of them out of her hair.
Daichi didn't deem this topic worthy of acknowledgment and stood aside as he gestured towards Jamie's middle, "Got a lost pet we wanted to report, maybe turn in if…"
His sentence trailed off as the fair haired boy took notice of Taro's state. The beige/white rodent had curled into an almost perfect sphere, pressed against the base of his violet housing. Little guy was shaking harder than Ranko, prompting actual concern from Jamie who, rather ineffectually, hugged the hamster ball closer. To the boy's credit, Taro did lean somewhat towards him and his body heat.
The blonde teen threw a side glance at Lady Fairy, looking to gauge her reaction. For better or worse, she didn't even seem to notice the hamster. The station attendant had her sights locked on Ranko, her expression screaming "I wish you would" towards the still rather agitated highschooler. Daichi felt a prickling at the back of his skull, running a short distance down his spine. His right foot turned towards the exit, an excuse to leave dancing on his lips.
"J-Just a minute Ms Minami," came the rushed, almost panicky voice of a young man who looked fresh out of a college lecture. His short hair was more of a dirty blonde than Daichi's and his build was much lankier.
The newcomer's height advantage didn't deter the winged woman in the slightest, "Minami" turning her challenging glare off of Ranko and onto him. The guy fucking recoiled, throwing his hands up like he was fending off an assault. The dog girl relaxed a tiny bit more at the blatant show of weakness.
Minami's glare was all the prompting needed for the man to keep speaking, "It-it-it-it," the cowering blonde swallowed, shut his eyes, then took in a breath, "It's no problem for me to take on their report!"
The front worker's "Just done" attitude gained a dubious air. She offered her jittery colleague a single word response, "Ayato…"
That seemed to all but banish the young man's jitters as he half jabbed a finger in the smaller woman's direction. "D-Don't start with that tone! S-Something as sim-sim-simple as this… I can handle it!"
Ms Minami did not look impressed and a few silent seconds under her gaze had her coworker trembling again. But she didn't say anything further, sliding herself and a few documents down the counter and out of the way. Ayato looked downright taken aback.
"So you're gonna handle us then?"
Everyone turned to Jamie, the boy staring flatly at their "eager volunteer" whilst still cradling the unresponsive Taro. Daichi clicked his tongue as he'd been about ready to drag his classmates into a retreat.
And then Ayato charged in with the most over the top customer service energy they'd witnessed yet, "Certainly! We'll get this all sorted post haste, no need to worry!" The suddenly quite peppy young man pulled himself along the countertop. That proved a touch too eager as he swiftly caught his foot on something and collapsed to the floor. Ranko popped a bark of laughter.
There was a bit of a pause before Ms Minami snapped a stack of files against the tabletop. Every front attendant unfroze and hopped back to work. The guy who got beaned by the joke bell quickly snatched it off the ground, pocketing the cursed thing in a sad attempt at being covert.
Ayato popped back into frame like a spring-trap marionette, Daichi reaching across Jamie to catch the jab Ranko had sent towards his face. The man's nervous energy didn't waver in the slightest, awkward chuckles issued as he dragged himself to the far edge of the front counter.
"O-Okay then, y-yeah," Ayato chirped through the pain, "right this way!" The fair haired young man reached the edge of the desk, making a grand gesture towards a single door leading through the dividing wall.
Daichi eyed the threshold, a polished wood frame with a top half-window. It was a pretty standard door in all ways, boring in all honesty. But the boy made no move towards it, his body still half oriented towards the exit doors.
Jamie happily – in a relative sense – followed the older man's instruction, ducking under Daichi's still extended arm and Ranko's still captured fist. Neither of them had a chance to stop him as the American marched through. And much more concerning, he was still carrying little Taro.
Ayato nodded at Jamie with a smile, the boy paying him no mind in return. Then the cheery guy turned to the other two, smile widening as he waved his hands in invitation.
Sighing, Daichi pulled down the palm holding Ranko's fist. Then he strode past her, clutching her wrist and leading the half dog past the lobby counter. Looked like they were in it now.
He did his best to ignore the prickling feeling that persisted.
The floor of the shaft crumbled away, spiraling swiftly out from the center of the room. The scarlet glare burning across the smoothed walls began to pulse at a moderate rate, plunging the area into darkness before surging with radiance.
Kisuke just reacted, snapping his legs together and collecting a winding vortex around his feet. The boy with the conical mane launched backwards on a spiraling gale, form ramrod straight as he blasted up the shaft towards the wall behind him. It took Kisuke about a second to realize he'd taken off and left Hagakure and Minetta, neither of whom possessed the gift of flight.
Tooru's left leg snapped against Minoru's side with two swift kicks. Her trusty mount immediately skipped backwards as the parting floor gaped open in pursuit. The desperate cry pressing on Izuku's lips was cut off as the hero hopeful stood and watched the ensuing display.
Despite his diminished size, Minetta had done an admirable job ferrying the much taller Hagakure all throughout their underground trek. Apparently, he'd only been showing a modicum of his prowess, the grape-hawked teen hopping rapidly in reverse with the poise of a trained acrobat. That his invisible passenger maintained an upright position throughout said enough about her own marvelous sense of balance.
"We should move!" Ikaruga's "suggestion" pulled the greenette back to reality. Midoriya swiftly took off for the wall behind them, turning partway to track Tooru and Minetta's progress. A foursome of dark spider limbs lunged past, clearing the space to the edge of the shaft in nearly a single bound. Ikaruga scuttled a little way up the wall as Izuku made it in below her.
And now that he was here… did he actually know that the floor was going to stop before it reached the wall?
Two arms wrapped under his own, the stunned boy being hauled up by his underarms. No sooner did the freckled teen's soles leave the ground did Haga-Haga and her loyal steed reach the wall themselves. Tooru had managed to perch her feet onto Minoru's small shoulders, her form crouched low. The moment her butt hit the smooth perimeter of the cave, bouncing the pair back slightly, the see-through girl vaulted straight up.
Izuku felt a vice like grip clamp onto his right leg. Kurogane lurched down, groaning from the stress of added weight as she heaved the lot of them back up.
The vanishing floor pushed up to the rockface just as Minoru himself hopped up the wall. With a deft twirl he slapped a pair of his sticky balls onto the vertical surface, the boy himself landing with one foot on each orb, facing the center of the chamber. He sunk into a low stance, leaning forward with both arms spread to either side.
Hagakure kicked off the adjacent wall, leaping back onto her faithful mount. The maneuver was a touch too smooth, as though they had rehearsed it a hundred times. Even Kurogane looked impressed.
Kisuke's voice called out from above, "Yo! You guys good down there?" This was answered by a raised sleeve and a, presumable, thumbs up from Tooru. The spiral spewing red head got a chuckle out of that. He looked to be having a hard time staying upright, hovering with arms angled downward and out, legs clamped together, and visible "drills" of violet energy wrapped around his limbs.
A dark mass streaked between the spike haired teen and his classmates, Kisuke twisting wildly in surprise. His chaotic movements spared him from a follow up blast, the torso sized missile whipping past with a sudden whoosh. Ikaruga almost dropped Izuku when another projectile smashed into the wall next to them, a spray of craggy stone and black dust blasting across them.
The poorly floating Uzuma had enough time to blink before a smaller, faster projectile slammed into the boy's shoulder. He pitched straight back into the shaft's side with a short cry, the tight spirals along his limbs sputtering out as he started to fall.
"Shit," Kurogane swore, her arachnid legs primed to jump. Midoriya clamped one hand onto her arm with crushing force as the girl all but flew up the side of the chamber. With his free hand he reached out to catch their plummeting classmate. It was more a sequence of reactions than a plan, but things were moving far too fast for thinking. The spider girl lunged forward to dodge a short volley of shots, the danger lost on Izuku. His every iota of focus was on Kisuke.
So it was only Kurogane who saw the patch of wall ahead of her change from a thrumming scarlet to an ocean blue. Her spider leg stepped into the azure field before she could adjust. The tunnel's strobe effect faded to darkness as a tense tremor shook the space, only the blue spot visible amongst the shadows.
The wall exploded out from the teal area in a pillar of smooth sapphire. Ikaruga scrambled, her arachnid limbs attaching to the rushing column which wrenched her along in its path. Izuku was ripped from the girl's grasp, rolling off the stone beam before being flung up and over the rushing formation.
Kisuke crashed into him, both boys being thrown down on top of the speeding column. Izuku tumbled once, wrapping his arms around his classmate and making to catch himself in a low crouch. But just as he was starting to gain his balance, the charging pillar ground to a halt, thrusting the pair forward. Vision swimming and body racked with pain, Midoriya made damn sure to keep a hold of a still dazed Uzuma.
Then something cracked into the stone floor just next to them. Without pause, Izuku vaulted his prone form over his classmate's, putting himself between the red head and where he thought the shots were coming from. He was rewarded with a pair of small blasts to his upper back. They hurt about as much as he figured, which was to say quite a bit.
Ikaruga appeared, leaping down on an incoming projectile. She winced as the skull sized missile cracked against one of her spider limbs. But the slab of rock proved surprisingly brittle, snapping apart easily and releasing an excess of dark dust upon bursting. Not given time to think on this, Kurogane speared another of her arachnid legs into a follow up shot. She hopped away as a series of attacks was focused on her, drawing fire away from the two boys.
Midoriya watched as more stone blasts slammed down, chasing the violet haired girl. Kisuke groaned as Izuku stood the boy upright, the green eyed teen scanning the shaft for their "sniper's" position. The smooth siding of the vertical passage wouldn't offer Ms Miyabi much in the way of footholds, so just where could she be…
The space darkened again, Kurogane's frantic flight and the repeating crash of stone against stone echoing through the black. Crimson light flooded the chamber once more, allowing Midoriya to see the far wall… and the notable splotch of shadow that lingered.
"There! That black spot, up there!" Ikaruga snapped her sights onto Izuku just as the boy's arm shot up. The motion left him unguarded, his cries of discovery making him noticed. The rock shot careening towards him was the swiftest yet, too quick for him to brace for, certainly too quick for Kurogane to reach him in time.
Uzuma stepped forward, his right arm encased in a violet drill of energy as he pushed past the greenette. He groggily stumbled, but managed to thrust his strike forward. The black rock was torn asunder, debris scattering around the pair with explosive force. Midoriya all but lunged forward himself as Kisuke collapsed to the floor.
That short moment was enough time for Ikaruga to reach them. The spider girl whirled on the far side of the shaft, slashing through a duo of shots as the shaft fell into darkness. When the red glow flared up again, she fixed her sight on the point Izuku had indicated.
With the space aglow, the patch of shade was readily apparent to anyone bothering to look. But even knowing where the enemy was, the spire striding trio couldn't really do anything, their efforts occupied by a continuous barrage from the shadow.
Hagakure – ignored as usual – and Minetta – diminutive and overlooked – observed the situation in silence. Neither of them was in the proper state for planning, minds still frazzled from their ongoing sugar crash. But as the chamber was again swallowed in darkness, a blue shine behind them offered an opportunity. Ever observant, Tooru had noted Ikaruga "activating" that previous patch of wall. Her open palm left its perch against Minetta's brow and began reaching for the surface behind her.
Minoru tightened his hold on his rider's thighs. It was mostly an act born of anxiety, mostly…
The rockface rumbled briefly as the see-through girl slapped her hand against it. A split second later and a thick pole of marine hued crystal erupted from the cavern's side, right into the backs of Minetta and Hagakure. The grape head's features were comically peeled back, his gritted teeth fully exposed as his lips were blown back by the persistent force. The invisible girl was, obviously, spared this embarrassment.
The speeding column quickly reached across the expanse of the vertical chamber. One last burst of stone shots tore free of the dark zone, slapping ineffectively against the blue spire. Tooru managed to reach down, tapping her finger against her small steed's brow. Minetta swiftly curled his arms around the luscious thighs encasing his head, grabbing for his iconic purple balls. As though endowed with overwhelming strength, the boy began a return volley of the sticky, violet orbs. The sheer number of balls being flung was astounding, Minetta's limbs merely blurs of blue fabric.
A sudden "Eep!" of shock rang out as Miyabi's ebon form glided out of the splotch of shade. Midoriya's sight fixated on the black silhouette, specifically how it seemed to adhere to the sheer wall of the shaft. "Physical form seems to imitate the properties of a shadow," he started to mumble, "pressing her mass into a thin frame that slides over the surface of an adjacent object. Unknown if her power is allowing her to 'bond' to three dimensional objects or if it negates the effects of gravity whilst in shadow form."
Given a moment to breathe, Ikaruga mused out loud, "Can you be sure if she is simply imitating the properties of a shadow or if she has actually become as one?"
Izuku didn't miss a beat, answering at once, "More likely the former. She broke cover to dodge Minetta's attack, implying that she still has a physical presence even if a highly reduced one. Also, unable to determine if area of darkness is formed from her quirk or a function of the building itself, since the staff have some means of controlling the structure. The stone projectiles seem far removed from her quirk's abilities as well." The violet haired teen nodded to the boy's point.
Minoru's free fire at the fleeing Miyabi cut off as Hagakure squeezed his skull tightly between her legs. Whilst the young man's frayed consciousness was torn between confusion and bliss, Tooru curled her legs in and rolled backwards over her own head, dragging the dazed munchkin with her. While she too had noted Ms Miyabi's exit from the dark patch, she'd been much more concerned with how their advancing pillar had made it three fourths of the way across the shaft and was showing no sign of slowing down.
Rider and mount cleared the head of the charging column seconds before it drilled into the edge of the cavern. The duo were sent tumbling end over end for a short while due to the impressive incline of the rock beam. Miyabi's black hiding place was speared through, illuminated in pure azure before it and the dominant red glare of the chamber faded to darkness once again.
Those looking did get a good gander at the veritable minefield of sticky balls Minetta had peppered the area with. Ms Miyabi visibly shuddered.
The shaft was re-lit… and Miyabi's form was again ensconced in a plane of blackness. Uzuma had reclaimed enough energy to throw up his hands and belt out a guttural, "Come on!" This earned him a stone missile, the boy too deep in his dramatic display to react. Izuku dipped past him, raising an arm in a defensive stance. The spike haired boy shouted distress at his classmate's maneuver.
But as before, the rock projectile struck and swiftly shattered against Midoriya's defined muscles. The blow had impact, it definitely hurt, but it was in no way anything close to "lethal force." Kisuke was torn immediately between seeing to his defender and outwardly panicking at the short barrage he'd just noted, stone rounds already less than a meter from impact.
Ikaruga's chitinous limb carved through one missile, another two flying wide of their targets and needing no intervention. The last one she caught. With her kneecap. Her normal, human kneecap. A wince broke across her face, but as with Izuku the craggy blast easily shattered. Kisuke let out an audible "Duuuhh" that had the girl rolling her eyes.
"She's not trying to kill us. It'd be simple enough to do if she can control the structure of the building."
Ms Miyabi had refocused as Minetta again rained purple orbs on her position. Between the extra distance and the pressure of having the enemy fire back at him, he was a lot less successful now. But he and Tooru had switched positions, the mighty Haga-Haga charging down the length of their pillar, dodging shots with relative ease.
A spot of teal appeared on the much thicker spire of Izuku and company, right about where the smaller column passed within jumping distance. Haga-Haga did not hesitate, holding tighter to the small boy's legs perched upon her shoulders as she vaulted across the open gap. Minetta gasped, ready for a terrified howl that stuck in his throat as the girl beneath him slammed down on the glowing bit of rock. The entire earthen spike trembled, the invisible girl diving forward just in the nick of time.
Another thin pole of marine crystal burst from the larger growth. It almost uncannily honed in on Miyabi's position, again forcing her out of hiding.
"Let's fuckin' go!" Kisuke had had enough. The teen spun up his quirk around his legs and swiftly blasted off towards the slippery shadow. Hagakure was already back on her feet, hoisting up Minoru and slapping some sense back into him as she moved towards their newly formed crystal column.
Izuku didn't move. He turned his attention away from the aerial struggle, Kisuke diving out of the way of a near endless barrage as Ms Miyabi glided away to keep distance. Instead he set his sights on the one other person who wasn't moving. "So this is another test?"
Kurogane smirked a little at her classmate's words, "More of a punishment, I'd say. Just one that applies some relevant lessons. Again, who'd think that hero school would be normal?"
Minetta was making admirable progress scaling up the severe angle of the third pillar, plucking orbs from his scalp and slamming them down as handholds in rapid succession. The fact that he was doing this with Tooru's arm wrapped around his neck, her twice-his-size body hanging off of him. If he hadn't been carting her around for the past half an hour or so, it might have been a tad more impressive.
Hagakure's free arm was tracking Ms Miyabi, pointer finger solidly jabbed in her direction and the girl doing her best to fix the woman with a jaw-jutted, stern look of promised pain. The whole invisible thing – on top of the shadow woman being rather occupied by Kisuke – made the intimidation attempt less than effective.
"… You got a plan," Ikaruga questioned, watching Izuku as the boy himself observed the moving parties. Her inquiry caught him just before he could bring his hand to his face and start up another train of mumbles.
The greenette's eyes flickered to Ikaruga before shifting back between the other groups. Not looking at her, Midoriya answered, "I've… I've got a couple ideas. Maybe they can come together as something like a plan."
It was probably the surest way of saying an unsure statement that the spider girl had ever witnessed. She couldn't help the touch of feral zeal that leaked into her responding grin.
Our middle school party find their way into the lion's den…
A very active, eager to destroy documents lion's den…
My original idea here was for an additional scene in the police station to cap off this chapter, specifically where they meet Ikezawa in the "questioning room". Time constraints meant I had to hold off on that, so we'll be seeing it next time.
"Lady Fairy" Ms Minami is very partially based on one of the supporting cast from the story Detective Midoriya by rogueptoridactyl. Shameless shilling incoming: it's a cool story about quirkless Deku building up to and then becoming a licensed detective, as the name implies, and though it hasn't been updated in two years there's nearly fifty chapters of content to digest. Do recommend.
The most noteworthy thing about her coworker Ayato is that he's named after the main lead from The Asterisk War. Figured naming him after a light novel protag would be an obvious way of labeling him as the "newbie loser", which you will see more of in the next chapter. For clarity, Ayato is the same rookie Ikezawa was "guiding" last chapter.
The sequence in the shaft gave me a bit of trouble. The version you've read is actually the second, had to re-write it because the flow just felt off. Still not entirely pleased with the end product, but I'm trying my best not to over-indulge my action scenes to the point they become bloated (anyone who's also reading Cloudchasing definitely knows about my "addiction").
One thing I wanted to draw more emphasis to was Izuku's observation and analysis skills. I feel like canon kind of overshadows this part of his character in favor of showing his self-destructive/self-sacrificing nature and it falls a bit by the wayside as the power scaling builds up over time. Here I want to concretely show that Midoriya's brain is always in overdrive, even in the midst of battle.
I also wanna draw a parallel between our aspiring number one and the reserved Kurogane, the two of them being the types to lean into strategy and observation. As such, she's the one who engages Izuku's ramblings and encourages him to disclose further. By contrast we have Kisuke who is very reactionary and has this "go for it" disposition. Hagakure (and Minetta by proxy) are kind of in between, though they're also slightly inebriated at the moment so…
Well then, next time: our hero hopefuls fight their way up the shaft as the truant trio answer questions… and maybe things get a little out of hand. Happy holidays, readers!
