Kugo hummed as he shuffled through some files sitting across from Tsunagu.
He was not sure how their friendship had begun exactly given they were not in the same circles as pros, Tsunagu was solidly a lime-light, maybe an idol if he did not focus more on his hero work but Kugo was an Auxiliary hero that managed to get a decent ranking.
If he had to pick when it began he would say it was either during the first mission they worked together years ago or the party he attended after he broke into the top fifty, both times Tsunagu had been the one to approach him and start the conversation between the two of them, and the second time Tsunagu had asked him to model for him and Kugo wasn't sure if he was joking or not.
Tsunagu was and Kugo ended up modeling clothes for Tsunagu a few more times since then since having a clothing line for those with mutant quirks was important to the man, admittedly it was nice to have more options when it came to his clothes and Tsunagu's costume design was far better than his original costume in leaps and bounds.
There had been quite a few missions, photoshoots, and fundraisers since then and each time it felt like Tsunagu had made it a point of working with him, which was odd but Kugo couldn't say he hated the man's attention, it was nice to speak with someone openly and he didn't even have to be the one to start up the conversation.
"Have you seen this year's festival yet?" Tsunagu asked bringing Kugo out from his thoughts and he looked up and saw the blonde was typing away on his laptop.
"Not yet, was too busy covering patrols for the heroes at the festival." Kugo answered before he found the files Tsunagu insisted were red though they could be pink for all he knew, perhaps because of his quirk Kugo was one of the few people in the world that were color blind, the only colors he could see with certainty was blue, brown and green, everything else was grey or some shade of the previous three instead of the actual color it was supposed to be.
He wasn't sure how much he was missing out on but Tsunagu didn't treat him all that different for it and only looked annoyed once or twice when it came to his file sleeves since Tsunagu apparently needed his records color-coded... then again Tsunagu worked a lot more cases then he did and might need the color system to help shorten his time spent searching the mountains of paperwork.
"One of my sidekicks has sent a recording to the work group chat, would you like to see it while your here Kugo?" Tsunagu offered and Kugo pursed his lips as he considered it.
The sports festival was less than a fifty-fifty thing for him, there was usually half a chance he'd find someone he'd want to take on, the real rub was that it was highly unlikely that those few that caught his eye would want to intern with him, he was on the list of heroes that looked like villains for a reason after all and he could count on both hand the number of interns who accepted his offer and less than half who returned to work with him.
"I think I have the time to watch, you can bring up just the first years right?" Kugo asked walking over to Tsunagu's desk, the blonde nodded and typed up something and then turned his laptop for Kugo to see.
"I plan to ask Joko and Eijiko to return, I've held off on watching the first year's since I know you only watch those." Tsunagu commented and Kugo nodded, he remembered both boys as being quite respectful when they had interacted and that was something Tsunagu had always looked out for when he took on interns.
It was hardly a second after 1-A was introduced when Kugo recognized one of the students and his jaw dropped, the tall reptilian man he had spoken with was amongst the students "Someone catch your eye?" Tsunagu asked and Kugo pointed to the individual in question "That's the man from the aquarium-The one whose sister called me a sea-panda." Kugo answered.
"Ah, interesting. I suppose he is younger than he seemed if he is in 1-A." Tsunagu said turning back to the screen and observing the man-boy, "He is, his voice was quite deep and with his height I thought he was twenty-one at the oldest after he told me of his sister." Kugo confessed rubbing the back of his neck feeling a touch awkward, because while it was an honest mistake it was because of the boy's appearance he had still assumed a lot about the boy because of his quirk.
Watching the boy go through each event was compelling as he used his quirk to his full advantage and brought some of his classmates with him, Miyake also had some decent fighting experience under his belt since although he was inexperience the boy had made some good moves and decent plans.
"I think I'll also extend an offer to Mineta, he isn't quite what I normally look for, but he might benefit from some advice for his quirk." Tsunagu mused before turning his eyes to him "Are you going to make an offer to Miyake? He is less likely to turn you down then the average student from what you have told me." he inquired having his interest peaked.
"Perhaps, he got himself first place, so he'll have more options then most even if he didn't get the audience's attention in the first round." Kugo replied with a dismissive wave of the hand, Tsunagu hummed tapping his mouth with a pen over his costume's high collar "That's true, but it wouldn't hurt to try." Tsunagu encouraged standing up and moved over to the printer.
After mulling it over Kugo did extend an offer to Miyake and was pleasantly surprised when he got a positive response from U.A, along with the message was a notice of confirmation that Miyake wished to spend his internship with him, so Kugo got to work and prepared for Miyake's arrival by figuring out the schedule for the week they would have the boy.
And sure, enough on the first day of internships Miyake had arrived promptly in front of his agency in his U.A. uniform with his suitcase in hand, Miyake was just as tall as Kugo remembered so it was an odd sort of dissonance to see someone as tall as himself in a high school uniform, but he brushed it off.
"Thank you for your offer, Gang Orca-San, it will but an honor to work with you." Miyake stated once he was in front of Kugo bowing as far as he comfortably could.
"The honor is all mine Miyake, come on in and I'll give you a tour of the facilities after you've changed." Kugo told the boy inclining his head in a slight bow back before he led the boy inside to his agency, the boy dutifully followed behind with a rhythmic clicking clacks from the claws on the floor since the boy was not wearing any form of footwear.
It is due to that sound more than a few of his sidekicks would look up at them and more than a few looked shocked when they saw Miyake was as tall as himself which was a bit out of the normal even in the quirk era, but he wouldn't employ anyone so judgmental and they would get over it after a few moments "I believe you put; the Sleepy hero Koi as your official name yes?" Kugo asked, a slight odd choice when he first heard it, but Tsunagu had told him the boy's colors resembled the namesake fish well.
"Yes, I let my sister pick my hero name, Orca-San." Miyake confirmed as his eyes went from place to place "I, see. And what do you expect to learn while you work with me, Koi?" Kugo inquired, as the #15th hero he was decently high in the rankings but was not that popular as an Auxiliary hero on the villainous hero list so his skills were not in the highest demand outside of certain situations.
"You are a good hero with a mutation quirk that's experienced in rescue work, I plan on being a rescue hero and though I'd like to focus on learning about rescue work, I know overlooking combat training would be disastrous." Miyake answered simply.
Hearing the boy was aiming for rescue work was a surprise since the boy had quite a bit of potential in combat and suppression but it was not his place to say where the boy was going in his career, it made sense for Miyake to take Kugo's offer though with that in mind though.
Rescue work was primarily dominated by heroes that were cute, soothing or comforting to look at because the branch was entirely dependent on the heroes in it being able to calm civilians during disasters, and as far as Kugo was aware he was the only hero in rescue work that didn't have a "cuteness" factor to his quirk and had been successful.
Kugo had seen some others with quirks like theirs try to make it in rescue work and most of them failed and changed branches or had adapted a "cute" look and personality to stay even though it made them significantly weaker in the field, it sucked but like Idol and Mascot lines it was entirely out their hands what made someone comforting enough to be a successful rescue hero.
"I will try my best to help you Koi, however rescue work is a tougher field for those with quirks like ours, so I'm unsure whether my aid will be enough." Kugo confessed trying to gently warn the boy, even as an Auxiliary hero Kugo had faced quite a lot of controversy when he first debuted.
Miyake gave Kugo a soft thrill "I know this will not be easy Orca-San, which is why I came to learn from the best, if I'm not cut out for it that will be my problem. I don't expect you to work miracles, just teach me like any other intern Orca-San." Miyake told him before heading into the changing rooms, leaving Kugo to be conflicted over Miyake's resigned response as he stood outside.
Kugo did not have to wait long as Miyake returned two minutes later in his, purple? (Yeah it was dark blue-brown so it had to be purple.) costume and Kugo thought it looked mostly alright for rescue work, there weren't any special bell and whistles most rescue heroes had to look friendly-er but it was simple enough for kids to draw without any problems, there was only one thing Kugo really wanted to ask the boy about.
"Why did you add the spiked-crest?" Kugo questioned pointing to odd decoration that was likely glued onto the boy's head "It's to help people hold on when I carry them on my back, something for them grab." Miyake explained, tapping the crest and Kugo heard a soft click getting a soft buzz "It also holds my comms since I don't have a large enough ear cavities to hold one." Miyake further elaborated for Kugo.
"What an interesting work around... I do recall you carrying your classmates during the festival, are you planning for that to happen often? Carrying others on your back?" Kugo inquired impressed the boy would think to add a comm system to his costume at all given most, if not all hero students forgot to add room for any form of communication devices unless it was a part of their quirks.
Miyake nodded "Yes Orca-San, I can transport people far and fast so I will likely spend a lot of time getting paramedics safely to victims that need treatment or bringing fellow heroes to certain areas and would like for them to have something to hold onto instead of my face." the boy confirmed.
Kugo nodded, such a thing would be undoubtably be invaluable in the field and he could certainly recount more than one disaster where having someone doing that would've saved many lives "I see, come most of my other sidekicks are in the training room, while they introduce themselves, I can gauge where your combat skills are exactly." Kugo instructed.
"Yes, Orca-San." Miyake agreed keeping step with Kugo to the training area.
Fun fact: Kugo sees blonde hair as a lime color