minh180621: Will this story ever reach to 'Canon'? I'm not complain or anything, it's awesome because not too many ff have background building like this, but I'm curious will this have any impact on 'canon' with MC around.
Re: Oh trust me, this will definitely reach Canon. I have multiple plot threads planned out. Why do you think I've had him meet so many movers & shakers through GGO?
It's just that his "Origin" as a Hero will begin in Middle School, meaning by the time he gets to Yuuei, he's kinda going to be a big deal. Whereas "Bakagou" gets his praises sung for being face-fucked by a sentient jello mold (Quirk Worship at its worst), Takei will be an actual "Hero Candidate", and will definitely become one of the next "Big Three" by the time Mirio, Tamaki, and Nejire graduate. That or one of the "Four Devas".
The sheer difference in tone at the school Hitomi-sensei nurses for, is because unlike Aldera Junior High which is a stone's throw away from Yuuei (thus Quirkism is at some of its worst nationwide), Damoto isn't close to any notable Hero Academies. That means not everyone with a pulse wants to become a Hero, the kids there have realistic expectations for themselves. It's just that when it comes to Takei, he's like a "local celebrity" before even becoming a Hero-in-Training.
PieMan1994: thanks for the chapter
also I know you ask last chapter if something from those rifts came out to ruin other people's day so my suggestion is to have the alternate dimension highly competent Dr. Nefarious from Rift apart end up in the MHA Universe after his defeat
Re: I have a plan along those lines already. But not in the way one would expect~
Skullkingvon: Thing i find most interesting catching up on this is the biology part that has given me a few ideas for when i work on my own story.
Re: The biology of superpowers always fascinates me, and I always enjoy whenever a game or something takes the time to add flavor text.
Like how in XCOM 2 after you Autopsy the Advent Purifier, basically sci-fi Flamethrower soldiers, you learn that instead of their [Fire Immunity] coming from their ARMOR, it's a result of genetic tampering; their outermost epidermal layer is 3x that of the 10 to 20 layers of interwoven cells found "in a typical human", helping with absorption and retention of moisture.
In fact all of the Autopsy Reports throughout the XCOM series are the sort of thing I really enjoy in terms of worldbuilding.
As for darkhero what must be done, in regards to your comment about Himiko potentially being turned into a "living Quirk factory"... I feel like that's only half-true.
Himiko can turn into other people to the level that she can give them identical blood; M'gann M'orzz/Miss Martian fromYoung Justice was able to change her Blood Type with [Shapeshifting] and it actually be viable for a Transfusion. However, similar to Mystique from X-Men who can fully transform into other people, she can't copy Meta-Abilities wantonly... unless she "Loves" that person like she did for Ochako Uraraka/Uravity and Jin Bubaigawara/Twice; at that point she gains the Skrull-like ability to copy a person down to their Meta-Abilities.
And if Effluvia like Nails/Hair were enough to Copy/Clone Quirks off of, One for All would've found that out a long time ago; the fact that there were "Vestiges" of all the other Quirks he stole inside of Shigaraki, not just inside [One for All], gives credence to the fact that Quirks may be tied to the "Philote" & "Aiua", the physical/spiritual component where the Body & Soul actually "meet". And while Kuin Hachikusa/Queen Bee from My Hero Academia: Vigilantes was able to briefly use other people's Quirks by "doping" herself on their blood, like when she copied Teruo Unagisawa's [Electric Eel], she didn't have the "sub-Quirk" that would've Insulated her from her own electricity. Of course Teruo was also Bio-Engineered to have a body capable of handling higher doses of the Neo-Steroid, Trigger, so it's possible that she could've only done so to the Next-Level Villains, maybe even Noumu.
But that's just my thought on the matter. And now, onto the show!
*AHA*
What little of the school week that remained went off without a hitch. While Yomi did find herself being pestered by the girls in my class who had begun to take an interest in the opposite gender, with Shiori and Kuromi throwing their own hats into the ring, I was thankful that she kept out little "rendezvous" in the classroom after school on the downlow. And Shizuru, being invisible, meant no-one could see the blush she might've been sporting given what she may or may not have witnessed.
While Yomi had admitted to Doppel giving her Nemuri's number, she obviously didn't know that my "auntie" was the R-Rated Hero: Midnight.
Either that or she did know but was able to keep a straight face. But then that only made me wonder why the hell she thought it was a good idea to tell a pre-teen girl to flash the boy she liked battle panties!
Wackiness aside, I deflected from the Hero worship, but that only seemed to make people want to praise me more.
Thankfully, the weekend came by "early", and I was more than willing to sleep like the dead.
Pun not intended…
*AHA*
"Hey, Takei! Come play with me!"
"How the hell'd you get in my apartment!?" I cried at being rudely awakened, Hatsume Mei's crosshair-patterned eyes an inch from my own, the two of us almost nose-to-nose.
"Our apartment," Sorahiko grinned. "So, you just gonna lay in bed and keep a lady waiting or what?"
"And what, pray tell, would the two of us be doing?" I asked realizing my plans to dive into GGO and work on my new kit (or "get my Chuuni on" as Shiori & Kuromi might've put it) were probably a bust.
"Working in my lab, of course!" Mei grinned that same manic grin. "I got some choice loot from Tokyo U's reject pile, figured we could make a baby together!"
" . . . What?" Sorahiko blinked.
"Yeah, that weirded me out a little too, but by 'baby', she means 'invention'," I said waving my hand. "Do I get any sort of choice in this?"
"Probably not," Sorahiko said adjusting his grip on his cane. "It's probably easier to just go with the flow. You're halfway whipped already~" the man grinned extending a pinkie.
" . . . Fine, let me put some pants on-"
"NO TIME! There's baby-making to be had!"
"MEIIIIII!" I cried as she dragged me out of bed by the ankle, wondering if this is how Morty or Jerry felt whenever Rick Sanchez did the same to them.
*AHA*
"Who's she?" Mei asked as we found Elma waiting for us by the curb in a Japanese compact the same color as her Dragon Form's scales.
Thankfully, after I convinced the salmon-haired girl to let me get some pants on.
"She's my dragon auntie, Elma," I replied, said Choro-gon beaming happily at my affectionate tone.
"Hey there, Ella!" Mei greeted.
"Don't mind her. She has a short attention span."
"I can tell," Elma hummed. "Well, hop in. It's a bit of a drive over to Bunkyou."
"Oh, so you live a stone's throw from Todai?" I asked holding the door for my manic gal-pal.
"Duh! How else would I have gotten their reject pile?" Mei asked manically.
"Oh, I can think of several ways," I returned as Elma pulled away from the apartment. "Wait, how did you get here?"
"I took the train!" Mei answered.
"By yourself?" I blinked.
No offense intended, but she didn't seem the sort who should be allowed anywhere (let alone to go) unsupervised…
"Bout an hour by train."
" . . . So you have yourself a lab?" I groused realizing that was all I'd probably get from her.
"Yeah, but nothing like my dream school…" she sighed wistfully.
"Oh? Where's that?"
"Yuuei!"
Well, they do have one of the most-acclaimed Hero Courses in the country, so I guess it makes sense the Support Course would be equally desirable.
And if danger was going to keep coming to me, I might as well get paid for exercising my own survival instinct.
"So… any idea what sort of… 'baby', we're going to make together?"
"BABIES?! AM I BECOMING A GRAND-AUNTIE~?!" Elma cried excitedly, eyes glittering happily.
"EYES ON THE ROAD!" I yelped as we listed to the side.
"Dunno. My design philosophy is, if it doesn't exist you make it; if it already exists, make it better!"
Well, with the sheer variety of Quirks out there, I'm sure that design philosophy could be moderately successful in the industry…
"Want some donuts for the way?" Elma asked passing back a box.
"Sure. It'll be a while before we get there, anyway," I hum as I open the box, only to find that most of the pastries were already gone.
" . . . "
That's Elma for you~
"Hey, where'd all the food go?" Mei asked loudly.
"Hmmmmmm…" Elma whimpered like a kicked puppy at being called out.
*AHA*
"Well that's fantastic…" I grumbled a while later, the three of us deadlocked in traffic on the highway as some Villain made a complete asshole of themselves, all of us trapped bumper-to-bumper as far as the eye could see.
"Hm. That could be problematic…" Elma said tapping her finger on the steering wheel. "Mei, could you pass this hot soup to Takei-kun? He still needs lots of nutrients to get over his last accident," she asked handing back a blue thermos.
"Sure thing, Ella!"
The moment she turned away from the front to hand me the thermos, Elma turned in her seat, gathered sapphire energy around her fingertip, and flung it at Mei's head.
"E-Elma, what the heck?!" I cried as the girl flopped against me and snored loudly after a runic circle flashed into being.
"Remember to stay buckled up," Elma said stepping out of the car and vanishing from view.
The next moment the car lurched as I assume Elma lifted it over her head, Mei dozing merrily against me as she hopped up onto the divider and ran along it at highway speeds. And sure, people were up their own asses for Hero v Villain fights, but there was no way that no-one was noticing what was going on!
. . . Of course a moment later I realized, Elma was probably using [Perception Blocking] to conceal our egress down the road, and I decided to just roll with it. What was the point of having a Dragon OL for an auntie if you didn't let her pamper you every now and then?
"At least this way I don't have to worry about back pains," I hummed leaning back in my seat, giving Mei a lap pillow if only so she wouldn't bury her face in my crotch. "Come to think of it, what even was Kobayashi-san's first name…?"
*Squeak*Squeak*
"Hm. Smells a little fishy, but not overbearing," I hummed sniffing at the soup Elma made for me; and the thermos was actually full!
Houston, progress has been made. I repeat: progress has been made.
*Gulp*Gulp*Gulp*
"Ooh! That's got some kick to it!" I yelped as the clear broth slid down my throat. It tastes somewhere between "fishy" and "neutral", but then again, health-nut foods were bland by nature, so that flavor and/or lack thereof was to be expected.
Of course, it wouldn't be until much later that I realized Elma's soup had some tangible… side-effects.
But that was a story for another day.
*AHA*
The area around Tokyo University was even more-beautiful than the websites portrayed. Or at least I was able to fully enjoy the scenery once Elma found a spot to set us down and stop using [Perception Blocking].
To my sheer amazement, most of the architecture remained unchanged since the 21st century, and as an added bonus, there weren't Heroes plastered on every flat surface to be seen. There was still the occasional "Instant Villain" attack when someone's report or project didn't receive the grade they thought they deserved, but really, I didn't expect the area around Todai to remain completely unchanged.
The Hatsume residence itself was a larger sort than Hitomi's, with a robust property to match considering two tenured professors at Tokyo University were footing the bill. Apart from the large two-story house itself, done in a modern Japanese style of architecture, the property around it was walled off by an impressive-looking barrier, equipped with the latest electronic security measures.
Mei wasn't an "Ojou-chan", but she was definitely well-off; although given her "babies" tended to look cobbled-together, it was likely her parents were teaching her the value of money, as opposed to just giving her whatever she wanted and spoiling her rotten. Which in of itself made what tech of hers I'd seen even more impressive. Most of what I'd seen in the dumping grounds outside Asaka-shi had been in excellent condition, practically brand-new beyond a few days of exposure, and there was no better price than "free".
We didn't enter the house per-se. Instead, we walked around to the back of the property where a one-story structure with wooden walls and aluminum roofing surrounded sparsely by short trees was waiting for us. The construction wasn't flawless like the house, so maybe sub-par labor had been used. Assuming all of her "babies" spontaneously detonated like that drone she sent on Valentine's Day, and given she called this her "lab", maybe her parents wanted her spot welding away from the house?
It made sense, given her eccentricities, though given how small it was, I wasn't sure how much of a lab she could actually have out here. If anything, it looked more like a cheaply-built clubhouse…
"Hey Vex! Let me in!"
"It's 'Vox'," a metal panel with a red optic, a speaker, analogue keyboard buttons, and the words VOX 2000 embossed up in the corner announced.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let me in!"
"Scanning. Retinal match confirmed," the security panel hummed as a red light shone over Mei's manic eye, a loud *THUNK* sounding from the door a moment later.
"Come on in! Make yourselves at home!" Mei hummed as she strode inside, Elma having to duck down since the door wasn't of a standard size.
"Sooo… Where's the lab?" I asked as I looked around. Circular rug, mini-fridge, ratty sofa, posters, hanging bookshelves. There was something familiar about the place, niggling on the back of my mind, but I just couldn't recall…
"Right this way!" Mei said as she hopped up onto a giant wooden wire spool laid on its side like a table. The girl turning a dial on an old radio on the wall shelf, in response to this a poster on the adjacent wall featuring a space rocket folded down, revealing a keyboard and computer screen, the genius girl tapping out a password before the spool-table shifted to the side, revealing a vertical chute. "In you go!"
"Wait what!?" I yelped as Mei ran behind me and shouldered me toward the chute before leaping into my arms.
"Take-chan!" Elma cried as the two of us descended the chute, Mei cackling giddily as the two of us slid down a slide that led into a small antechamber with an inflatable landing pad waiting for us, a pair of blast doors with radiation symbols on the opposite side of the room.
Wait a minute…
"Come on! Time's a wastin'!" Mei said as she approached the blast doors which opened automatically, leading into another identically-sized chamber outfitted with power throw-switches, fuse boxes, and metal lockers. Off to the side were another pair of blast doors identical to the first, a *Thump* sounding as Elma bumped into the first pair which closed on her face.
"Owwwww…"
"Come on, slowpoke! Time waits for no man!" Mei said walking through the perpendicular set of blast doors. Following after her, I gawped as I found myself on a catwalk traversing a massive underground chamber, the ground floor filled with piles of odds and ends, the wall on my right dominated by security monitors with receivers all across the neighborhood and Tokyo U, while at the end of the catwalk was yet another pair of blast doors, the ones behind me shutting in Elma's face resulting in another- *Thump* -and another- "Owwwww…"
"This… This is…!"
"Pretty great, huh~?" the girl genius grinned as I entered an underground workshop with a stone floor and concrete-reinforced walls. "Who knew there was an old Cold War bunker under our property? I sure didn't~"
Aforementioned "Cold War bunker" also looked eerily like the titular character's laboratory from Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
At first I didn't think too much of Mei's penchant for gadgets and gizmos that blew up, but seeing how she had a Jimmy Neutron-style lab under her backyard… I wondered whether or not the universe was fucking with me.
Though I suppose it could've been worse; she could've been a "Dexter, Boy Genius" archetype instead…
*Thump*
"Owwwww…"
Okay, I've heard of the "Rule of Three", but this is getting just ridiculous.
-thought I to myself as I looked out the window overlooking the lab's largest chamber, Elma rubbing her forehead on the end of the catwalk.
"Sooooo… you built all this by yourself?"
"Naw. I borrowed some construction drones from Tokyo U's robotics division," Mei replied before averting her eyes, "without asking. Heh heh heh," she muttered under her breath.
" . . . "
"Anywho!" she said after checking on a few of her smaller projects, that too on a revolving table with dividers eerily-similar to Jimmy Neutron's setup. "Let's take a look at those scraps!" she said making her way out the door, descending to the ground floor of the larger chamber on a spiral stairwell.
Aforementioned pile was, quite frankly, intimidating. Resembling abandoned college end-of-term projects, most of the stuff looked more-futuristic than what was available back before I reincarnated, while others looked like new spins on old ideas.
"Come on! Let's build something!" Mei said as a toolbox with spider legs wobbled over toward us.
"Mei-chan, I think you're grossly over-estimating my… myyy… myyyyyy…"
*AHA*
"Mei-chan, I think these doors of yours are defec… tive…" Elme trailed off as she stepped off the stairwell, her forehead-rubbing stopping mid-trail-off as she watched Takei dig through the pile of technological detritus like a Dragon picking for an especially-shiny nugget of Mithril. "Um… Mei-chan-"
"Bathtub! I mean eureka!" the pinkette crooned as Takei filled his arms with odds and ends, sticking the ends of several hand tools between his teeth before he ran off to a work bench against the far wall. "Yeah! Work that sexy brain of yours, Take-chan!"
"What… is he doing?" Elma asked as she watched Takei cannibalize the pile of odds and ends for parts before he started mashing them together. Sometimes he'd do a little pruning, sometimes he'd hit the power tools, but the whole time he was muttering to himself, dancing to a tune only he could hear.
"No idea, but I am digging it!"
"Well, you know the old saying. Idle hands are the Demon King's playthings."
"That's how that saying goes? I always thought it was 'Devil'…"
"Oh trust me, the Demon King is much worse," Elma said candidly.
*AHA*
It would only be later that I realized the sensation which had come over me was like a blend of the numerical synesthesia of a "Master Builder" from The Lego Movie franchise, the "intuitive mechanics" privy to Greymatter and Juryrigg's species from Ben 10, and the explosive surge of inspiration granted to the titular James Isaac Neutron whenever he had a Eureka moment. Like, one moment I was staring at a pile of junk, and the next I had a psychedelic "thought bomb" go off inside my head, my hands moving on their own like when the last vestiges of the original Tokei repaired watches.
Only, instead of those thoughts coming from him, those thoughts came from… somewhere else.
By the end of my brief fit of insanity I had somehow cobbled together a toy-like pistol I'd spray-painted red with gray trim and blue LED accents, fitting more mechanical implements inside of it than should've been physically possible. Bit of a… semi-Retro/semi-Futurepunk kinda vibe…
"So! So! So! How did it turn out?!" Mei asked eagerly, bouncing on her heels before Elma put a hand on her shoulder.
"I… I'm not entirely sure," I said as my finger accidentally found the trigger, a scissor-extender capped with a red boxing glove suddenly shooting across the space between us, Mei ducking with a scream resulting in Elma being knocked off her feet with a loud *POW!*
"Holy crap that was awesome~!" Mei swooned with a blush on her cheeks as I rushed over to help Elma into a sitting position.
"I'm not hurt, I'm not hurt. I was just surprised is all," Elma said as the scissor-extender on my discarded weapon retracted, leaving a boxing glove protruding from a toy gun that was many times too small to contain it.
. . .
Roll with it.
"I'm sorry," I said, pressing a kiss to her reddened forehead before I realized just what in the hell I was doing.
"I-I-It's no problem…!" Elma said going red in the face, eyes darting.
*FWOOOOOT!*
"So, what're you going to name the birthday boy~?" Mei grinned excitedly after tooting a party horn of all things, cradling my red-colored weapon like a toddler in a manner disturbingly-similar to Boba Fett.
"The Walloper." -is what came out like word vomit, my cheeks reddening as a spark of memory flitted across my brain.
"NEAT!" Mei grinned. "Maybe next time you can use this on the giant frog monster!"
"Oh god, I hope not…" I groaned.
Then again…~
" . . . So what're you working on anyway?"
"THIS!" Mei grinned as she unfurled a tarp from a low-set object off to the side with a flourish. "When I'm done, I'm going to have my very own-"
"Hover Car…!" I gawped as I beheld the inflatable raft and kiddie pool composing the body of the incomplete product, the unseen pieces falling into place at the forefront of my mind.
Socially awkward genius… Gizmos that blew up…! Underground lab!
Holy shit! Hatsume Mei was this universe's version of Jimmy Neutron!
That's one hell of a person to have in my in-group…!
Though it did nothing to stop me from thinking the universe was just fucking with me…
"Awww! You spoiled the surpriiise…!" Mei moaned. "Ah, well, I guess geniuses do think alike!" she said still cradling my 'baby'.
How am I going to get that boxing glove back in there…?
How the hell'd I get it in in the first place?
Problems for future-me.
*AHA*
"Sooo, you've just always been a genius?"
"Nope! I actually used to be kinda dumb. But not anymore!" Mei said as she eagerly cannibalized the pile of abandoned school projects for parts, ferrying them back to her still-incomplete Hover Car as she worked on the dash, a collection of discarded car seats off to the side in another pile dedicated solely to chairs.
"Well, hard work is something that returns dividends…" I hum as I watch her work. Shy of contributing myself, I had no earthly idea what she was doing, and I felt like it would be rude to contribute without any sort of request.
"Yeah, mom and dad say the same thing too," Mei hummed as she lowered a set of very steampunk-era goggles over her eyes and worked a spot welder.
"Sooo… Support Items, huh? I'll admit, a Hover Car is pretty up-there with what a Hero would want," I hum as I admire the craftsmanship. It's almost eerie how-similar it looks to Jimmy Neutron's; though admittedly, I don't remember too much about the dash, which I'm pretty sure like in Megas XLR, was inconsistent between episodes. Either that or it was consistent, and I just don't remember.
Come to think of it, did Nickelodeon exist on this Earth? Not sure if it exists now, I haven't really been watching a whole lot of TV outside the News… And if Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide doesn't exist on this Earth, I can just say "that knowledge was lost" somewhere in the Paranormal Age.
"I also have a jetpack, but I'm not allowed to test it near the house. Or alone…"
And like that, the Jimmy Neutron comparison only deepened.
"If you installed radial airbags on the harness, your family might let you do some live testing."
Wait… What the fuck just came out of my mouth?!
"Note to self: Research radial airbag safety measure," she muttered into a handheld recorder.
I mean… at least she's installing airbags… Hopefully.
Speaking of which, I really need to get back to Papi.
*AHA*
"So they really let you have a Tokyo U library card?"
"My parents have tenure!"
"So you say," I hum as the two of us, chaperoned by Elma, made our way through the Tokyo U campus.
It seemed completely random for us to suddenly do so in the middle of her tinkering, but as it turned out, Mei needed to return-and-renew some research material she'd borrowed about propeller dynamics, the Bernoulli's Principle, hovercraft construction, and so-on because she'd forgotten until literally the last minute.
"It's a lovely campus," Elma hummed. "I visited once or twice with… with…" she trailed off sadly.
"Don't worry about it. I forget names too~" Mei grinned.
"That is not why I'm trailing off!" Elma cried, red in the face while Mei giggled at her.
'Hmmm… Maybe Kanna and Rindo went here?' I idly wondered as we walked by the Yokohama Auditorium.
That it had survived the intervening centuries was fascinating… Though given the hints of newer construction methods, it wouldn't surprise me if the entire campus had been leveled at some point by a jilted-student-turned-Villain, only to be reconstructed with the help of Quirk-assisted labor.
Come to think of it, I wonder what Japan's Corporate Age heroes looked like…
Hopefully it wasn't an endless stream of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider lookalikes/knockoffs.
"Here we are!" Mei grinned throwing out her hand in a flourish. "Eight million and counting!"
"That's a lot of books…" I gawped as I beheld the countless shelves at what was probably the largest collection of reference materials in the entire country. " . . . Mei-chan… Where are your books?"
" . . . CRAP!"
"SHHHH!"
*AHA*
After a round trip back to the house and then back to the library, Mei finally got her books renewed, despite being a total spaz.
"Well, there goes my entire day…" I sighed as Mei shouldered her load while looking for new materials to borrow.
"Aw, come on, don't be like that," Mei pouted. "Let's have a slumber party! We can make more babies together!"
"I really wish you wouldn't say the b-word in mixed company," I said as Tokyo U students gave me funny looks before realizing who was in my company and shrugged their shoulders before giving me a- "What can you do?" -look.
It was both very good and very bad that Mei-chan was so-infamous…
"Mmh! Hmmmmmm!"
Looking over my shoulder into another aisle, I spotted another middle schooler who stuck out amongst the sea of college-aged faces. She had long black hair tied up in a spiky ponytail with a large strand hanging on the right side of her face, large-yet-sharp-looking onyx-colored eyes below short eyebrows, a figure with budding feminine curves, and a determined expression on her face as she tried to reach a high shelf for a book just-out-of-reach. She was currently clad in a school uniform consisting of a gray blazer with a conservative knee-length black pleated skirt, a red tie around her neck.
"Ooh! Here we are!" Mei said suddenly as she whirled on her ankle, almost stomping on my foot as she walked past me and into the aisle the struggling girl occupied, completely ignoring her in favor of climbing up to a higher shelf, despite Elma's protesting.
"Um… Do you need help?" I offered, the girl turning her onyx eyes toward me and flushing in embarrassment.
"Oh, ah, if you would be so kind," she articulated like a proper lady. My fingers interlaced, I gave her the extra reach needed to acquire the book she'd been gunning for. "Thank you very kindly," she said bowing politely.
"You're welcome," I returned. "Do your parents work at Tokyo U as well?"
"Ah, no, though they did attend here," she answered. "Oh! Where are my manners. I'm Yaoyorozu Momo, but you can call me 'Momo'."
"Nice to meet you, Momo. I'm Takehiko Tokei, but my friends call me 'Takei'. This is Hatsumei Mei-chan," I replied pointing to my salmon-haired friend. "Her parents are tenured professors, by the by."
"Oh, how wonderful~" she smiled prettily.
"What'chu got there, smarty-pants?" the crosshair-eyed girl asked unabashedly.
"Looking for some reference materials to help me with my Quirk," Momo replied she said holding the book in question to her chest, a complex chemical formula displayed prominently on the cover.
"Takei and I are making a hover car!" Mei grinned as she grabbed another book and slipped it into her bag. "Who're you again?"
"Ah, just a lover of books," Momo replied.
"Kinda weird seeing another kid here. Your parents tenured professors too?"
"Ah, no, like I said, my parents simply attended, and they're prolific donors to Todai, hence why I'm allowed here," Momo repeated.
"She gets tunnel vision. Don't let it get to you," I waved off. "Anyway, it was very nice meeting you. I hope your research goes well."
"And for you as well," Momo smiled with bright eyes, completely nonplussed that Mei had said we were building a hover car with a completely straight face.
*Growrrrrrr*
"Um… Just ignore that…" Elma said bashfully, her stomach letting out another gurgle.
*GROWRRRRRRRR*
"Okay, that one was not me!" the dragon programmer said as her face heated up.
"Ah, that's my bad," Mei cackled unabashedly, rubbing the back of her head.
*Growr*
My eyes turning to Momo, she too blushed cutely, her stomach's rumbling a lot more conservative than the others'.
"Um… How about I treat us all to some snacks," I offered awkwardly.
*AHA*
"Mmmmmm!" Elma swooned as she giddily ate some limited-edition snacks.
"Momo, anything catch your eye?" I offered as I scrounged for exact change.
"Oh, please, no need to go that far for me. If anything, it should be I who pays for everyone's snacks."
"I'm sorry?" I blinked.
"I mean, my family has the most expendable income out of all of us, so it only makes sense."
"Who… put that idea into your head?"
"Oh, my other friends from Miyukiyama Chugakko," Momo answered, her eyes flitting from mine for a moment.
"If that's the sort of stuff they're telling you, they don't sound like very good friends," I returned, her eyes going wide at my words.
"What? N-No, don't be ridiculous! It-it just makes sense for the richest person to buy the… snacks…" she trailed off, clearly not believing her own words.
" . . . Maybe this isn't any of my business, but what you just said was very disconcerting…" I replied as I fished the last of my change from my wallet. "So, snacks?"
"Um, I'll have a Matcha KitKat, if it isn't too much trouble," she replied, looking pensive as I paid for her food as well, even though we'd just met. "Um… Why did you help me?"
"Hm?"
"You don't know me, and you weren't obligated to me in any way, so…"
"Who are you a Hero to?" I returned, causing her to blink up at me. "It's a question my favorite Hero would always ask himself before suiting up. It's something I try to live by, to be the kind of person Wild Tiger would give a thumbs-up to."
"Oh my, what a beautiful sentiment," Momo smiled, sounding slightly awed. " . . . It isn't that I didn't know they were using me for my money. It's just…"
"Hard to make genuine friends when you're rich?" I shrug. "I'll admit, if it's something everyone knows about, it can be kinda hard to get away from that sort of thing; not that I have any personal experience. And maybe I'm stepping way out of line by saying this, but if your friends are just using you for your money, they don't sound like very good friends at all."
"Would… Would you be my friend then?" she asked bashfully, chin turned down.
"That sounds kinda sudden. Why me?" I asked as she looked up at me.
"W-Well… You're the first person to ever buy me snacks."
"That's hurtful on so many levels…" I said passing her her snack, before aiming for some spicy-flavored chips featuring Endeavor for myself.
"Pwah! Refreshing!" Mei grinned as she downed her beverage. "Well, we've been gone long enough. To the laaab!"
"Um…! Can I go with you?" Momo asked eagerly. "I admit, this project you're undertaking sounds quite intriguing. If it isn't too much trouble, that is."
"Your call, Mei-chan," I hummed. It was her house after all.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Mei shrugged. "The more the merrier!"
"Excellent! I shall call Sebastian to the gate and have him pick us up posthaste!" Momo said giddily.
. . . What?
*AHA*
"I see you have made some new friends, Ojou-sama," the driver said through the dividing window as the four of us found ourselves in an honest-to-kami limousine.
Okay, I got the inkling that she was rich, but I didn't know she was this rich!
-thought I to myself as I eyed the plush interior. Real leather seats, open floor plan, multi-media system, coffee maker, champaign cooler alternatingly filled with cola, voice command…!
"Yes, Takei-kun has been very kind to me," Momo said nodding toward the driver.
"You're giving me a little too much credit," I return awkwardly, having only seen limos like this in movies and TV, let alone been inside of one…
"Well, Ojou-sama could stand to have friends with a little more sincerity," the man said turning his attention back to the road.
" . . . Well, you're certainly the richest person I happen to know," I chuckle awkwardly as I try not to scuff the leather.
"You know, there's something familiar about you…" Momo hummed putting a finger to her chin, her head tilted cutely as she looked me over.
"Oh, I'm sure I just have 'one of those faces'…"
"I believe that is the young man from the recent controversy, Ojou-sama."
"And you let me in the car?!" I gawped incredulously.
"You were not a present danger to her safety," the man replied casually. "That, and she isn't a giant frog trying to eat someone alive."
"Oh my! So it's really you?"
"How many other Takehiko Tokei with P-90s are there in Japan?" I asked incredulously. " . . . I asked that rhetorically," I said as Momo went for her phone, before blushing at my comment and putting it back down.
"I have to say, that was incredibly brave what you did. I'm sure this Wild Tiger of which you think so fondly would be quite proud indeed," she said with glittering eyes.
"Oh, uh, thanks…" I replied bashfully. "That whole… frog thing didn't make national headlines, did it?"
"I mean… That sort of thing does tend to stand out. A Quirkless anura growing to such a colossal size, let alone being from the Counterside…"
"Counterside?"
"It's the common term used for any 'where' and/or 'when' outside of our own reality," Mei chimed in as she leafed through her new book, completely ignorant of her surroundings. "All that multiverse stuff gets pretty intimidating when you stop to think about it and our own place in it, so you won't see a lot of people calling our world 'Normalside' outside the STMO's Taskforces."
"That would've been the second time you encountered something from the Counterside, correct?" Momo inquired.
"Pretty much. You see people getting eaten alive, that shit will stay with you foreeeverrrr."
"Ahem!"
"Sorry, sorry," I apologized to the driver. "But yeah, apparently there were a whole bunch of those things running around, and I just happened to be the only one who actually stopped someone from getting eaten."
"It's amazing that no-one died."
"That we know of~" Mei grinned in response to Momo's optimistic comment. "Who're you again?"
"Your friend certainly seems to be… eccentric," Momo whispered.
"Ojou-sama, you have no idea…"
"Please, you can call me 'Momo'. None of this 'Ojou-sama' stuff between friends," she insisted cutely.
"Hai, hai."
*AHA*
"Oh my! Amazing!" Momo gasped as she beheld Mei's underground lab from the catwalk.
"Yeah, my home away from home!" Mei grinned. "Hey Take, show her your baby!"
"Baby?!" Momo gawped.
"She means this," I said pulling out the semi-Retro/semi-Futurepunk weapon I'd created, which only now I realized was from my favorite scene in the Ratchet & Clank movie. Now, I didn't have any sort of eidetic memory, but certain weapons from R&C just stuck with me, even all these years later.
Which made it doubly suck that Ratchet & Clank didn't exist in this universe outside my own memories…
"Oh my. What does it do?" Momo asked tapping the end of the muzzle inquisitively.
"It's basically a Support Item for punching people but you don't wanna get too close," I replied.
"And it really works?" Momo blinked.
"I mean, I'm not completely sure how I made it work, but it does work…" I trailed off as I remembered the before, during, and after-Wait! Was that my "Cheat Ability" at work just then…?
Shiori and Kuromi could never hear of this.
Then again, given how genre-savvy they are, the moment I use my Walloper in front of them, they'll probably come to such a conclusion almost immediately.
"So, what do you think?" Mei asked as she showed Momo her hover car.
"It's a very interesting design…" Momo said warily as she eyed the kiddie pool the passengers would be sitting in.
"Eh, I'm on a shoestring budget," Mei shrugged. "Just makes it more fun when it really works! And now that Takei is here, we can make all sorts of babies together!" she said causing Momo to blush to the roots of her hair.
"Gizmos! She means gizmos!" I shouted frantically.
And that's the story of how my circle of friends came to have an "Ojou-sama" archetype in it.
*AHA*
AN:
It didn't really occur to me until just now (as in, when I was first writing this particular chapter well before the whole "Truck Villain" thing got away from me for a spell), that Hatsume Mei was-in-fact, the My Hero Academia universe's parallel to Jimmy Neutron (titular character to the show of the same name). As soon as I realized as such, I couldn't not give her an underground lab in the backyard.
Mind you, I have no evidence to Horikoshi-sensei intended for Mei to share so many characteristics with Jimmy, and they could be purely coincidental, but once I made that Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide cameo a while back with "Gordy", I had my own BRAIN BLAST!
As for Momo, I can't not imagine her parents going to Tokyo University (after all the hype from Akamatsu Ken's Love Hina), so it only seemed fitting that she have a library card for that institution. Her Quirk is very research-intensive, so it just makes perfect sense that she'd study with resources from one of the best colleges in the country.
Anywho, tell me what you think of this chapter, and I'll see you next time!
Gotta blast!