A/N
In the last chapter, I introduced Midnight as a possible love interest (to the best of my ability). Before I write anything else concerning romance, should this story be a harem or single person? If it's a single person, then the sole love interest would be Mirko, while a harem would include Mirko as the main girl, and then other girls like Midnight or Ryukyu. Please leave a review with your thoughts if you want to. Until then, please enjoy the story!
CHAPTER 12: INNOVATION AND FANCLUB
Now that Midoriya's training has gone from strengthening to learning how to properly utilize One For All, technique has been put on the back burner. Which means, a lot more free time has been added to Katsuo's already boring days. Without school, there isn't much a 13 year old can do. This is what led Katsuo to practically camp out on rooftops, waiting for literally anything to happen. So… bored. Katsuo looked like he was dead (again), having not moved an inch from this same spot on the roof for several hours now. He had gotten better with utilizing mana to keep an eye on things. He could now successfully cover a five mile radius with mana, allowing him to detect anything out of the ordinary.
The only thing hinting that he was still alive was the fact that he was practicing using mana more delicately by messing around with mana strings. This also helped him with what he called "mana sickness". Basically, Katsuo starts feeling sick whenever he overexerts his mana. It's one of the reasons he can't go beyond a five mile radius. If he uses mana to make wires as well as spreading across a wide area, he can train himself to deal with the side effects more efficiently in case he ever gets mana sickness in the middle of a fight. After training for the past few days, Katsuo could make 2 strings, each one as long as 10 feet (or around 3 meters). At least I'm improving?
Of course, all this extra free time led to one, startling realization. Katsuo was POOR. His mother's surgery went splendidly, but 30,000 dollars USD doesn't just come out of thin air. Insurance is nice, but not good enough. Katsuo needed money, and he needed it fast. Fortunately, he had as much hindsight as he had no money. The reason he began studying math and science books everyday was to have the ability to create hero support items. It was an industry with a lot of demand, a lot of money, and now Katsuo was fully equipped to dominate it. But, how was he going to get in? Nobody would give some random 13 year old the time of day, much less test out their inventions with the risk of bodily harm.
However, a quick Google search on his phone revealed the answer to Katsuo's worries. The pro hero, Power Loader, was holding a competition for budding new engineers and scientists who wanted to showcase their inventions. 'Power Loader is a teacher at UA, if I'm not mistaken. Looks like he's seeking out people who want to join the support course next year. This is the perfect opportunity. Looks like the contest is being held in a few days. Not much time to build something, but I can work with it.' For the first time in a while, Katsuo began feeling the same kind of excitement he felt in the scenarios, the excitement of being able to accomplish something great with his own two hands. "Okay, time to get started!"
The plan was simple: build something amazing that would WOW the judges, especially Power Loader. Only problem was what Katsuo could actually build within a few days. First up, was the planning process. Can't buy the necessary materials without finding out what you need. Katsuo may not be able to buy them at all with his meager savings, so spending the bare minimum was a must. 'Necessity leads to the application of science. I need to observe a problem lots of pro heroes have in their line of work, and then build something better than anybody else just in case I wasn't the first one to have the same idea.' Katsuo jumped onto his computer and began searching online. He couldn't just look up the weaknesses of various pro heroes, unless he wanted to be on some government watch list with a van outside his house, so he began pulling knowledge from Midoriya's notebooks and footage of fights between heroes and villains.
Katsuo scoured YouTube for hours, finding various clips of fights from the last few years. And then, he noticed something. Something that would undoubtedly present a huge problem for lots of pro heroes. Whenever he watched a pro hero with an elemental quirk, he noticed that they could only launch wide-area attacks, like giant ice walls or fire storms. However, they could never make small, pin-point accuracy shots to minimize damage. They were completely unable to do so. 'If I make a device to harness elemental type quirks, it could not only make its way into the hero world, but also give way for other inventions that could solve similar problems!' Katsuo set up a white board on his bedroom wall and began drawing out a small list of what his "baby" needs to do, as well as the corresponding materials for each use. And then, a solid frame was completed.
The device would be a glove that could concentrate elemental attacks into the palm of the glove when spread, or it could concentrate the elemental attack around the glove if the hand is clenched into a fist. Best of all, Katsuo could easily complete a proptype before the competition. 'I should be able to make this thing out of parts in the garage, but it won't be nearly completed. Hopefully I can get some kind of funding to finish this baby off later on.' And now, it was time to build. Katsuo grabbed the leather gloves his mother used in the garden (he'd get her some more) and began to work on them. "Old car parts and whatever was left of the old TV isn't gonna be enough. If I had more parts-" Suddenly, Katsuo remembered something. The few times he had visited Midoriya while he was training at the beach, they hauled the trash they collected over to the junkyard. Katsuo distinctly remembered their being a truck and a refrigerator.
Katsuo's trip wasn't fruitless in the slightest. The pre-existing junk combined with all the crap on the beach made for an excellent haul. After getting permission from the owner of the scrap heap (who said someone was already getting stuff from here), Katsuo filled his giant backpack with as many parts as he could get. In fact, the hardest part was finding out how to shrink all these parts to fit on/in the glove. It was grueling work to say the least, but nothing a hundred different books on math and science couldn't achieve. God it sucked though. Katsuo spent four restless nights building, tinkering, and collecting more parts, slowly but surely making his way to the halfway finished prototype. "As long as it gets the job done without blowing my hand off, it should be fine."
Another difficult part of this endeavor was the fact that Katsuo couldn't use elemental attacks. If Katsuo had encountered a pyromaniac with a thirst for blood, he could have been a pretty good guinea pig. Without that skill though, Katsuo had to settle for running simulations on his computer. He typed up a program as fast as possible and began running simulations of the glove's usage depending on the variables he coded into the system. These variables were dependent on what materials and parts Katsuo included in the gloves. He must have run a thousand different simulations over the course of those four nights before finally ending up with something that didn't explode. The finished product. 'I'll made two sets of gloves, just in case something goes wrong'
He spent the final night building the gloves and getting a few hours of rest before the big competition.
Katsuo's nerves were through the roof. If he thought taking a test for school was bad, then this was something much, much worse. Because he couldn't properly test the gloves on someone, he didn't know if they would actually function properly. 'I think the gloves exploding would actually be better than them not working.' Just as he thought this, a poster blowing in the wind caught his face. It was a poster for the competition. "The Young Engineer's Invention Competition". The time was set for four hours from now, at 12:00. 'Early bird gets the worm, I guess.' Katsuo had no idea how much that phrase actually applied to his situation. When he got inside the building, most of the other children there were already setting up their displays. From what he could tell with his limited experience yet vast knowledge, most of the inventions were small potatoes.
Not literally, of course. Things like baking soda volcanoes, robots, that kind of stuff. Although, one invention was a potato powered generator. Katsuo thought that was cool. Besides the potato generator, one other contestant was going to give Katsuo a run for his money. He could see it in her eyes, and not just cause they looked kinda weird. The pink haired girl was entirely invested in her project, ensuring everything was in working order. She was even rubbing it tenderly like a mother at one point. Eventually, she did notice Katsuo, immediately getting excited to know someone was interested in her invention. "Hi there! My name's Mei Hatsume, and this is my baby!" She launched into a whole, probably not planned out speech about her "baby". From what Katsuo could gather from her fast-paced explanation, her invention was a pair of "magnet boots". It was just a name for people to easily grasp what they were about.
The boots weren't actually magnetic, they just used something to stick to the ceiling, walls, slippery surfaces, etc. Mei wouldn't explain what it was until her demonstration. When she asked Katsuo about his "baby", he simply smiled before putting a finger to his lips and walking away. Katsuo absolutely refused to turn back towards her after his cool maneuver, but he heard her giggle in excitement as he walked towards his booth. Katso set down his box of supplies on the folding table and got to work setting everything up. He placed a sign with his name, participant number, title of invention, and its job, which was "hero support". The setup was simple. There were a few pros there to help out with testing inventions, so that wasn't a problem. The first set of gloves were set out on the table, while the other set were kept in the box for safe keeping. Katsuo also brought a bomb disposal unit, just in case.
After that, it was just a matter of playing the waiting game. After ensuring his gloves couldn't be stolen, Katsuo found himself naturally drifting towards Mei, ultimately playing cards with her while discussing engineering topics and their thoughts on different things in the field. Katsuo was well-studied from reading so many damn books, but he was surprised by Mei's equal amount of knowledge. She was just as well versed in engineering as he was. Social cues, not so much. He must have spent most of the time listening to her ramble on and on about her inventions, but it wasn't so bad. Katsuo could feel the passion and excitement in her voice, so he just decided to enjoy listening to her while they played go fish. Time flies when you're having fun, and soon the judgment commenced.
Katsuo decided to shadow the judges so he could see the outcome of each invention. Just like he thought, Power Loader was here, as well as a few pro heroes he could test his invention on. The inventions mostly went as planned. The baking soda volcano was nice and all, but it couldn't hold up to the other inventions. Not because it failed, but because the others were next level. Katsuo's interest in the "mediocre" inventions peaked when they got to the potato generator. The boy poured potatoes into one side of the machine, before a lightbulb on top suddenly turned on. The inside of the machine revealed a complex network of wires and circuit boards which were able to amplify the amount of electricity in the potatoes. Best part was, it only required a small amount of energy from one potato to function properly. The machine was even able to dispense fries once the potatoes were tapped out. Katuso really enjoyed himself.
Then it was Mei's turn. Her invention had more showmanship, the view being obstructed by a purple curtain. And then, she revealed them. Her "magnet boots" were both snazzy and shiny, as well as functional. She asked one of the pro heroes to try them on. The boots were way too big for them, but ended up shrinking to the exact size to be comfortable. They were lightweight as well, allowing the pro hero to run and jump and flip and whatever they needed to do. Now, for the actual functionality. A watch was placed on their wrist. When pressed, it turned on the "magnetism" of the boots. It was slightly harder to walk, but somehow not noisy. They were completely silent, and allowed for walking on the small course Mei had set up. It was just a wall and ceiling, but it worked. Even better, the boots didn't blow up. "This is some amazing work, Ms. Hatsume!"
Power Loader began a quick discussion with Mei on how she achieved such a thing, both complimenting her and being critical of where she went wrong in the process of building the boots. In the end, Mei was even more excited to continue improving the boots. "Now then, on to the final demonstration. Where is Mr. Hiroki Katsuo at?" 'Okay, it's time. I got this. I got this!' Katsuo turned to Mei, who gave him an excited thumbs up. It was exactly what he needed. He walked up to the table and began his presentation.
"(Clears throat) Necessity is the mother of invention. While it is not known who said that, it still holds true in every sense of the word. I spent hours analyzing various videos of the fights between heroes and villains and came to a startling realization. Most elemental type heroes have a hard time controlling the area of effect for their attacks." All of the judges, including Power Loader, were interested now. Some of the participants from earlier were now also listening, while Mei looked like she was about to burst from excitement.
"After seeing this, I spent multiple days and nights creating this: The Gesture-Enabled Adaptive Response glove. AKA, the GEAR Glove!" Katsuo unveiled his invention. It was a pair of leather gardening gloves with a circuit on the back of the hand that was connected via wires to a device on the palm. "It looks kind of shabby, but it looks interesting." Power Loader was correct. Katsuo may be incredibly smart thanks to the system, but his time constraint was VERY constraining. This was the best he could do with the time. "First of all, I'll need a pro hero with an elemental quirk to step up." Katsuo looked toward Spark, a flame user, who walked up to him. After putting the gloves on the nervous pro hero, Katsuo unveiled a red and white target a few feet away.
"Simply aim, and fire!" At that, the hero aimed the glove at the target and shot a fire wall- fire bolt at the target. He was surprised. "How? Usually all I can do is make a wall of fire!" The hero was excited and began firing more until the target broke. The judges were highly impressed. So impressed in fact, that only Katsuo noticed the smoke coming from the circuit on the glove. "Oh shit." Katsuo quickly slid the gloves off the hero and threw them in the bomb disposal unit, which looked like it hiccuped a few moments later. "Well… that seemed dangerous." Power Loader's words stung. Time for a diffusal. "Sorry sir, I only had four days to build the gloves, and I had to make it out of car parts and other stuff from the junkyard." Katsuo looked at the ground and rubbed his head.
"You mean, you built something like this with scraps in FOUR DAYS?!" Power Loader grabbed Katsuo's shoulders, who looked up at the man in confusion. "Kid, you're a bonafide genius!" Katsuo looked at the other judges, who nodded in agreement, big smiles etched across their faces. Mei was practically dying at the back of the group, laughing and giggling like no one else was in the room. After congratulations from the other contestants and the judges, Katsuo was led to the stage at the back of the room and handed a gold medal, as well as a check for-
"50,000 DOLLARS?!" Katsuo hadn't seen that much money in his life. It seemed even greater to him when he watched Mei, who was in second place, get a gift card for home depot. Third place just got a head pat from the metal glove of Power Loader. 'Damn, that kid's head must hurt.' The event was now over. The contestants were now cleaning up their booths, the pro heroes had gone back on patrol, and Power Loader was going around giving the other kids advice on how to improve their inventions again. As Katsuo grabbed his box and disposal unit, Power Loader stopped him from leaving. "Hey kid, if you want, I can recommend you for the Support Course at UA. I think you could do a lot of good with your inventions." Katsuo was initially confused by the sudden interruption in his routine, but replied with a determined smile on his face.
"Thanks a lot, sir, that means a lot to me. However, I'm joining the hero course. I'm as strong as I am smart!" Katsuo's smile never faded, nor did it fail to reach Power Loader's heart. "All right kid, I'll be expecting to see you around campus. Just make sure to stop by the lab some time, okay?" Katsuo couldn't see it, but Power Loader was showing off the same smile Katsuo had. After saying goodbye to Mei and congratulating the potato generator kid, Katsuo left the building 50,000 dollars richer.
"Everybody stay back for your own safety!" A row of police officers were blocking the public from getting any closer to a storm of electricity in the middle of the park. A woman was crying hysterically, crying about something Katsuo couldn't make out. Apparently, a child's quirk had activated while he was in the park with his mom. His quirk was a power electric type, and it was completely out of control. It created a dome shape that threatened to electrocute anyone nearby. A few pro heroes had tried to save the kid, and they were now laying out on the ground being attended to by medics. Katsuo looked down at the box in his hand and had an idea. Katsuo had been saving this ability for a rainy day.
He could not only coat a large area with his mana, but also his own body. He couldn't manage it before, but now that he could use so much of his mana, he could create a thick enough layer of mana that a simple elemental attack from someone who hasn't trained their quirk couldn't get through. He took the gloves out of his box and once again dodged the police as he effortlessly made his way inside the storm, shocking everyone watching. They pulled out their phones and began recording Katsuo as he knelt down in front of the boy.
The young child, only four years old, was screaming in pain and crying. "Don't worry kid, it'll be alright." Katsuo's low, soothing voice reached the ears of the distressed child, who's pain got a little bit more bearable. Katsuo slipped the gloves on to the child, and the electricity immediately stopped, instead being focused on the palms of the gloves. The child smiled. "Tha- thank you mister!" Katsuo was startled by the erupting roar of cheers from onlookers. Even the pros seemed to be proud of him. And for some reason, they didn't lecture him this time. "Jeez kid, no wonder you're famous," one of them said. 'Famous?'
Before the pro could walk away, Katsuo grabbed onto his sleeve and asked her, "What do you mean, famous?" The pro laughed to herself before pulling out her phone and showing it to him. The Hiroki Katsuo Fan Club.
'What the hell.'
A/N
I lied. Thought this chapter would be shorter and I could cover everything I needed to, but I can't. Expect at least one more chapter before the timeskip. Sorry! Enjoy the rest of your day!