A/N: Somewhat of a shorter chunk this time around. Next update will be a little bit of a longer one, and then there should be one large scene to finish out the chapter - I may delay publishing on 11/25 depending on whether it's finished or not, because I think it'll be best if it all comes out together at once. Enjoy!

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As I turned around to look at Yaoyorozu, she shuffled the papers in her hands nervously. "Well, there are a couple of potential offers that stick out at me," Yaoyorozu admitted, "but they have sort of … different specialties."

I nodded. "So it's hard to make a direct comparison between them, I see," I said. "Do you know what specialty you're going for? Or have any ideas?"

Yaoyorozu looked to the side for a second, not quite able to meet my eyes. "W-well, I'm not entirely sure yet. I've been waiting until I had more experience with a variety of facets of the heroics field before committing to a specific approach." She paused, looking uncomfortable. "I initially thought myself capable of managing and leading a large agency, but… well." Silently, she shook her head, not finishing her sentence. "In any case, while I do intend to perform a more detailed due diligence on all of the offers I received, there are three heroes who have caught my eye so far."

As she slid her offer letters towards me with the relevant names neatly highlighted, it took me a few seconds to shake off my disbelief. Yaoyorozu thought she wasn't capable of leading an agency? I didn't know what to say to that at all. A better person, maybe, would have addressed that moment of vulnerability that she had displayed, could have said something encouraging to cheer her up or found a way to gently ask her more details on what was bothering her. Instead, I bent my head to examine her prospective offers. "Mr. Plastic, Uwabami, and Air Jet?" I asked.

"So far, anyway," Yaoyorozu agreed. "Uwabami is a celebrity hero, which isn't really the direction I want to develop in professionally, but she's known to be very charismatic and runs a fairly sizable agency. Plus, she's the most famous of the three heroes offering."

"She seems like she'd be a decent pick, but it sounds like you're not so convinced?" I asked.

Yaoyorozu looked a little flustered. "Well… the downside is that she's not a particularly notable hero combat-wise. Looking her up, it seems her arrest statistics are relatively low, for example."

"That's less of a downside for a week-long internship than it would be for a longer one," I pointed out, "but you're right, it's less than ideal."

Yaoyorozu nodded. "Exactly. Then there's the Buster Hero, Air Jet; he's actually higher ranked than Uwabami, even if he's less famous. He's a well-known support hero."

"As in, he uses a lot of gear to help him with his quirk, right?" I asked.

"Right," Yaoyorozu said. "So, it does seem like there would be some natural synergy between his experiences and my quirk's ability to potentially create support items as needed. But, he's not really known for being very friendly or approachable, which somewhat explains his lower ranking."

I frowned in thought. "So he's the anti-Uwabami?"

"You could put it that way," Yaoyorozu said. "And then there's Mr. Plastic, who is also known for being a Support Hero of sorts, but he's more similar to Power Loader-sensei in that he's a Support Gear Designer as well as using it in his costume. And, he's supposedly very creative in how he uses his quirk, which seems like it could be very applicable to my needs…" Again, Yaoyoorozu trailed off, rather than finishing her sentence.

"But?" I prompted her.

She shook her head. "I mean, it's silly, but... he's very… scientifically focused, I guess you'd say. And there's nothing wrong with that, but -" Yaoyorozu broke off for a second, and took a breath to figure out what she was going to say before continuing. "Well, I suppose I was hoping to broaden my focus, rather than overspecializing."

I frowned, thinking about the question for a second. "Maybe it's because I'm such a generalist myself," I admitted, "but that last option sounds pretty attractive to me. It's easier to succeed if you can start with a core competency and to broaden out from that than it is if you're just mediocre at a lot of things." I smirked self-deprecatingly. "Source: Me."

"Really?" Yaoyorozu said in surprise. "I'm surprised to hear you say that, Hikigaya-kun. I had thought you were doing quite an admirable job of things so far. To be honest, it's part of the reason that I approached you with this question; I thought we had somewhat similar strengths and weaknesses, so I didn't expect you to recommend avoiding the generalist path entirely."

Feeling a little uncomfortable at the direct praise, I shook my head in negation. "I mean… look, I'm a generalist because my quirk leaves me no other choice. If I'm being honest? My quirk is kind of crap. Yours, on the other hand," a combination of envy and embarrassment colored my voice, and I had to look away from Yaoyorozu in shame. "Your quirk is amazing," I said. "Or, no, that's not even it. Your quirk is pretty good on its own, but it's you who's amazing. The way that you can make things on the fly, the sheer amount of studying you've had to do in order to perform, it's way more of an advantage than you're giving yourself credit for." I snuck a peek at Yaoyorozu only to see that her cheeks were bright pink, and hurriedly looked away again as I felt myself blushing as well. "Quirks aren't the be-all and end-all, you know?"

Still blushing fiercely, Yaoyorozu nodded. "I can't say that I disagree with that," she said, "though I don't think that you're giving yourself enough credit either," she added, probably for the sake of politeness. "I'm just not sure about, well…" she paused, looking glum. "Scientific-type heroes tend to have a hard ceiling on the level of popularity that they can receive from the general population. There isn't a single one in the Hero Billboard top ten, for instance."

"May I interrupt?" A cold voice interjected. I looked to my left with surprise and saw that Todoroki had apparently taken notice of our conversation.

I shrugged, and looked over at Yaoyorozu, who nodded. "By all means," she said.

"You should go with Uwabami," Todoroki said flatly. "The Endeavor agency is one of the largest in Japan, but even my father could only make two offers to UA students. There aren't many big agencies, so offers from them are pretty hard to get."

"Huh," I said. "I wonder why the school does that?"

Todoroki shrugged, but didn't elaborate.

"Fair enough." A thought struck me, and I tilted my head. "Who else did he make an offer to besides you?"

Todoroki shrugged again. "He wouldn't say."

"I suppose I hadn't been considering the availability aspect of things at all," Yaoyorozu said. "That complicates matters. Even if one agency would have more of a long-term impact on my performance, if it might be available later as an option while others would not, it might be worth considering taking the limited opportunity before it vanishes."

"A-hem!" A weird, echoey voice made itself heard. Once again I looked to my left, and saw that Tokoyami was now paying attention to the conversation, with his Dark Shadow having interrupted for him.

"I apologize," Tokoyami said. "I couldn't help but overhear, but I hadn't meant to interrupt," he said self-consciously. "I'm afraid that in my reveries over my own internship, my control over Dark Shadow slipped slightly."

"It's not a problem, Tokoyami-kun," Yaoyorozu said, flashing him a slightly distracted smile. "I'd be happy to hear your input as well. It's quite the dilemma."

Tokoyami shook his head slightly. "I'm uncertain as to how much assistance I will be in resolving it," he said, "because I must admit that my initial instinct was that you should clearly choose Air Jet."

Yaoyorozu laughed, slightly helplessly. "Why do you say so?"

"The light and darkness in men's souls is revealed not through their words, but through their actions," Tokoyami intoned. "While I don't doubt that Uwabami and Mr. Plastic have their merits, both appear to be heroes only part-time, choosing to act as media personalities or as scientists in addition to their hero work. If the purpose of an internship is to teach us to act as heroes, then a teacher focused on such matters seems like it would be the best option." He paused for a second, then added darkly, "I also have a foreboding feeling that the USJ was not the last we have heard of the League of Villains. In light of that, I feel it might be wiser to prioritize the ability to handle ourselves well in combat given a choice between that and other options."

I felt a chill go down my spine at Tokoyami's dark proclamation, and I doubted that I was the only one. Somehow, the classroom seemed much quieter than it had been only a handful of seconds ago.

"Well, at least I know now that I wasn't concerning myself overly with an easy and straightforward question," Yaoyorozu said, sighing down at her list of options. I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could encourage her with something trite like 'that just means they're all good options,' the bell rang to mark the end of class and the start of our lunch period. Yaoyorozu looked up at me. "I think talking about it helped. Thank you, Hikigaya. And you as well, Tokoyami-san, Todoroki-san."

"Don't mention it," I mumbled, scraping books into my backpack hurriedly.

"Would you mind helping me a little more at lunch, Hikigaya?" Yaoyorozu asked. "If that's not too much to ask, of course."

"Sorry," I said, "I actually need to run down to the nurse's office so she can run some tests. I'll probably be late to lunch."

"Oh, I see," Yaoyorozu said. "Well, I'll make sure to save you a seat, then."

I almost protested that I didn't need her to do that, but as I was about to do so my stomach grumbled. Considering that I would have to wait through some tests by Recovery Girl before I could eat, I supposed that having her save me somewhere to sit would save me a little bit of time and let me eat faster, so I nodded. "Thanks," I said, and shrugged my backpack over my shoulders before making a bee-line for the door. "See you in a few."

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"Hmm." Recovery Girl said.

I stepped down from the scale. "Good hmm or bad hmm?" I asked nervously.

Recovery Girl shook her head. "Could be better, could be worse," she said, craning her neck backwards to evaluate me with a gimlet eye. "You're up a couple of kilograms, but most of that is almost certainly water weight," she said. "Let's take a look at your blood. Stick out your hand for me."

"Don't I need to have fasted for you to take blood tests?" I asked curiously as I extended my arm, the muscles in my back and neck already clenching in involuntary tension at the thought of a needle.

She took my hand and turned it face-down, then placed my index finger into a recess in a boxy machine about the size of a loaf of bread. I felt a quick stinging sensation on the pad of my finger, and Recovery Girl pulled the machine away. "UA has access to slightly more advanced equipment than your average doctor's office," Recovery Girl said smugly. "Now let's see," she said, pulling out a tablet computer and synchronizing it to the blood test device. The bright screen of the tablet reflected off the front of her heavy purple visor as she stared down at the results. "It looks like your inflammation markers are down, and your blood sugar is back in the normal range - not unexpected, but always a good sign. Urea is down, thrombocytes and neutrophils are… up, though not as far as I'd like; vitamins A, D, E, and K are still very low, TSH looks normal so we can rule out thyroid involvement, liver function doesn't seem to be impaired…" She trailed off almost into mutters, rattling her way through a host of medical terminology I only vaguely recognized. Suddenly, her attention returned to me. "How have you been feeling the past few days?" She asked. "Any diarrhea, constipation, dark urine, or bloody stools?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "The, uh, dark urine one, but only Friday and maybe a little bit Saturday morning," I said. "On the other side, um… I wouldn't call it diarrhea, exactly, but I've been um, going more often than usual? That might be due to not using Efficient Digestion anymore, though."

"Hm." She made a note on her tablet. I did my best not to fidget nervously. "How about your energy levels? Any aches and pains? Chronic fatigue?"

"Uh… No aches and pains," I said. "Maybe the fatigue thing. But that might just be the nightmares," I admitted. "I haven't really been sleeping well for a while."

Recovery Girl's steely glare softened slightly. "We can do something about that," she said. "With your liver and kidneys as overstressed as they are, I wouldn't want to prescribe anything too strong, but I can give you a script for melatonin that should help you rest better."

"That would be nice," I said faintly. I wasn't really so sure about the idea of taking sleeping pills, but melatonin probably didn't qualify, right? That was practically a health food thing. As soon as I had that thought, the fact that I had mentioned the word 'food' in the back of my brain suddenly reminded my stomach that it was empty. A gurgle emanated from my belly, and I scratched my head in embarrassment. "Sorry, my bad."

"I'll let you go in just a few seconds, young man," Recovery Girl said. "In the meantime, let's talk about your Quirk."

"Okay, sure," I said. "What do you want to know?"

"What do you know about Quirk Catalysts?" Recovery Girl asked.

I paused for a second. "Uh, some people need to eat stuff to make their quirk work right?" I said vaguely.

"Right," Recovery Girl said. "There's a theory out there which states that all quirks require biological catalysts, it's just that for most of us the catalyst is something that we'd normally eat enough of anyway. While I don't personally think the theory is entirely accurate, if it applied to even a fraction of the quirks which you've copied, that might be why your condition is so severe," she said calmly. "In particular, I'm thinking specifically about your low vitamin count. If you're using more catalysts than a normal person, that might help explain why you're so severely undernourished."

"I started taking multivitamins when I, uh -" almost passed out the first time, I didn't say, "- started feeling a little crappy after workouts, and it seemed to help," I told her.

"Well, that explains why you haven't been showing symptoms of rickets yet," Recovery Girl said disapprovingly. "Given that that's the case, in addition to the melatonin, I'm going to be prescribing you a high-dosage multivitamin that I expect you to take daily."

"I can do that," I said, nodding enthusiastically. Whatever I had to do to not get kicked out of the hero program.

"Now, with regards to your internship," Recovery Girl said solemnly, and I felt my gut clench at her tone of voice. No, she couldn't! "You being in such bad shape poses some challenges. Medically speaking, you're not yet safe to train. You're still quite underweight, and with your other nutrition issues…"

"What about my digestion quirk?" I interrupted in a panic. "I mean, you told me to stop using it because you weren't sure if it helped or not, and I haven't been using it just like you said, but I swear it helped whenever I was feeling crappy before. If I use it, I might be able to gain weight in time."

Recovery Girl paused. "That's true. Alright, how about this." She hit a button on her tablet and a nearby printer whirred to life. She picked up the piece of paper that it spat out. "Here's a high-calorie diet, and some recommendations for the vitamins you need. Eat as much as you can today, then come back at the end of the day. If there's been some improvement, I'll hold off on recommending that you be mandated for a low intensity work study."

"Thank you," I said, a surge of relief entering my voice. "I'll go do that right now."

"In the longer term, you might want to look into the school's enhanced meal plans," Recovery Girl suggested as I grabbed my bag and started heading for the door. "I know my way around nutrition, more or less, but it's one of Lunch Rush's specialties."

"I will!" I shouted, and started half-running, half-jogging towards the cafeteria. My chance to get involved with the Nomu case depended on it… and I was starving.